The Dandenong ranges are located just about an hours drive Eastwards from the City of Melbourne.
The area is a horticulturists paradise! Which does explain why there were so many plant nurseries, bonsai nurseries, gardens of all sorts and fertiliser vendors all over the place.
Mist.....thicker than the Beijing fog! This along with the winding mountain roads made driving a bit scary at times
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils
There were Lots of unknown flowers like this one, even in the winter.
A green flower, looks like a variety of Euphorbia.
More Unidentifiable flowers and plants
Huge Gum trees!! makes you feel kind of ............... small.
?? Not sure what this was all about
A Crimson Rosella
A Laughing Kookaburra. There were plenty of these around but none came so close as to get a good shot. Why is it called a Laughing Kookaburra you may ask, well in that case you haven't heard the Kookaburra's call. Unfortunately I couldn't catch one on video for your listening pleasure so you'll have to have a listen
here.
I wish more birds would sing like that!!
There are some very interesting aboriginal stories built around the Kookaburra. On Saturday night I read that aborogines in the area had this story that the Kookaburra's loud call is a request to the sky people to light up the mighty fire that lightens up the world. And sure enough the next day I heard the Kookaburras going on about something before day-break, and what do you know before long the sun was up!
A puffed up Australian Magpie
Ruby! One of our very friendly hosts for the night
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... a local lunch!
The William Ricketts Sanctuary
One of the renowned gardens & parks in this area. William Ricketts was a sculpture/ artist who was inspired by the spirituality among the aboriginal people.
It is said that the aboriginals have (more so had) a very close connection with mother nature, instead of fighting nature and overcoming it, the aboriginal people knew that the best way is to live with the nature in harmony.
This lead William Ricketts to do his bit to let the word spread. Therefore his sculptures depicted aboriginal figures blending in with the soil and the trees and the rest of mother earth.
A man with two lyer birds on his shoulders
Mother Earth
Thun Sithaka Raavaya
And to top off the great weekend, we got to listen to some intoxicatingly beautiful voices.
Dooooowili.................
This was not really in the Dandenong ranges, but it's not often that the diaspora get to listen to this kind of thing so didn't want to miss this!
The unforgettable Apple mala
Thun Sithaka Raavaya taking leave from the stage.
They didn't forget to sing all my favourites.........which was quite a lot!!
