Today we decided to rest easy in our room at at the Docklands Travelodge. We didn't have to check out until 11:00 and it was raining until about 10:00. I found the hotel on line about 5 weeks ago and God worked it out for us - the place I picked was about 2 blocks from the hotel where we are staying with the tour group...we could walk over there. How cool is that?!
We couldn't check into the Vibe Savoy until 2:00 but they were willing to hold our 2 suitcases while we went exploring. Easy enough!
We headed down to the nice walkway along the Yarra River that runs through town. We ate lunch at an upscale food court along the river and then headed to a huge garden park at the bend in the river. The Alexandra Gardens, The Queen Victoria Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens are all grouped together and cover about 125 acres.
Alexandra Gardens
There were 2 main paths through the gardens. This time of the year there were bushes with some blooms but I didn't see any garden flowers.
The Queen Victoria Gardens were a little more formal. We only walked partway through them to get to the Royal Botanic Gardens. But, The Queen was there to greet us!
At several points in the park you could see the downtown peeking through the trees.
Our third park was the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
These beautiful plants were in the Guifoyle Volcano.
The volcano is an interesting concept I have not seen before. Guifoyle was the landscape artist. There were beautiful cactus and various succulents on the outer rim built up like a mini volcano. You walked around the volcano to get to the top. The hole in the volcano was filled with a pond, complete with ducks.
I'm pretty sure this is THE largest Botanic garden I have every visited. Victoria has over 3000 plant species. (Victoria is one of six states in Australia)
We hiked the length of the Australian Forest Walk. They had a huge collection of various types of oak trees. The park was founded in 1846 and I'm convinced some of the trees in the park are that old!
Eucalyptus are the most numerous in the country and various types of acacia come in second.
I've never been in a place with so many green trees and bushes and so few flowering plants and still be so beautiful!! I think the lack of flowers is just the season of the year. They had many ponds and bogs that added great backgrounds for the beauty. And, I just realized - no bugs!
We also walked through the Fern Gully which looked much like the rainforest we hiked yesterday.
We made our way back to the river walkway and decided to take the Free City Circle Tram back towards the hotel. We had walked about 10 miles yesterday and about 6 today.
We got back to our room - Andy took a nap and I worked on this blog! At 5:30 we met downstairs at the bar with our #goaheadtours tour guide and the other 22 participants! We talked with several people and then sat with Judith and Bruce at the buffet dinner. Ends up Bruce was a 30 year Naval officer, so we talked all things military over dinner. Was fun!
The official tour begins at 8:00 am with a city tour!
We feel acclimated and ready to go! With conversation and excitement about seeing and doing new things, I haven't thot too much about the dizziness I have been experiencing. I'm grateful!
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