Friday, July 8, 2016

Puffing Billy

This morning, we left Melbourne and headed toward Mount Dandenon. It's not very high, but it's the tallest mountain in the area. 

We went to a place called Grant's picnic area and fed cockatiels. One of them bit my thumb- not hard enough to break the skin, just hard enough to startle me. That pretty well ended my aspirations of becoming a professional bird wrangler. Alas, I shall have to find a different dream to follow. Cas had better luck. Here he is feeding one of the birds:
 
After we left there, we made our way to Puffing Billy, the passenger steam train that runs in The Yarra River valley. 

It had originally been used to haul gum trees down from the top of the mountain. Gum trees grow tall and straight, which them very appealing as masts for shipbuilders. Demand for that sort of thing was such that transporting wood via train was totally reasonable. 

It's an open air car, and passengers are allowed to hang their legs out. It was a totally fun and completely unique experience. Here is the crew working at a stop: 
 
We're off to drink wine, now! 

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