An area south of Melbourne known as Brighton is home to some of Melbourne’s wealthy. The colourful huts on the beach are handy storage for beach toys and preparing a snack. They sell for a cool $500,000 and if you are interested they are in demand and hard to purchase so some patience is required. The community is beautiful and so are the people!!

The downtown is full of shapes and colour and I’m searching for images that capture some of the uniqueness of the city. The mix of new and old is everywhere and a lot of effort has been put into retaining old structures.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I thought I would seek a high point of land to capture an image of the whole city skyline. Hmmmm, Australia and a high point of land? After walking for a very long time I looked back and saw the city, took a shot, and perhaps gained 50 meters of elevation. So back to the city and got a few more shots of the eclectic mix of architecture.

Oh, by the way, couldn’t resist another street art pic.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today I decided to get my head out of the back alleys and lanes and put on hold the search for more street art. So, with no plan in mind I walked the main streets just on the outside of downtown. There was time for a long black coffee on Lygon street to add a little punch to the day. Well, it was a nice long coffee break doing some people watching.

The images attempted to capture a few shots of the sky line and sharp edges of the buildings. Some fun images were added as contrast.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Still having fun taking shots of street art in Melbourne. Maybe its everywhere in big cities; Melbourne certainly has gone for it. This time I walked the streets of Fitzroy, a suburb just outside the central business district. It is a hip area with coffee shops, funky clothing shops, ethnic food shops, and yes; hipsters everywhere.

Barwon Heads is an awesome place and my hosts from my last visit offered their vacation home for me to stay and enjoy the area. Just before I left Melbourne I took another street art image and it is in the post as well. I’ve discovered that street art is a big deal in Melbourne and it pops up everywhere.

The beach area is very addictive and I found myself visiting it several days in a row. One of the reasons is to capture images of race horses getting a chance to run the beach. Unfortunately they must have been running a track and were absent except for their hoof prints. Oh well, the warm water and spectacular vistas make up for the lack of horses; next time. The photo shoot was bit of a fumble fest as I dropped two polarizing lenses in the sand, filled the tripod legs with sand and water, and generally was awkward. Must have been gawking at the views!!

The community of Barwon Heads is surrounded by Moonah trees. They apparently live for a very long time and are protected. They are gnarled and appear hardened by drought and wind. In the summer (now) they are in bloom and they roll back and forth in the wind. I thank my hosts Warrick and Kathy for yet another great time at Barwon Heads.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Barwon Head is a small seaside community and part of a chain of resort communities south of Melbourne on the Southern Ocean. Friends Kathy and Warwick own a vacation home in Barwon Head and we stayed for several days. They were great hosts and showed all the sites in the area ranging from beautiful beaches and landmarks to a “show and shine” car show. This is a place I would come back to often as it has something for everyone and is on the beginning of the Great Ocean road. For the extreme surfers there is the famous “Bell’s beach” just down the road. By the way it is only 3000 kms to Antarctica due south.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Walking around downtown Melbourne is a treat. My friend Kathy and I got some advise from a photographer familiar with some of the interesting spots in the downtown core. We walked into laneways covered in graffiti and some of the painting has been done by notable graffiti artists such as “Bansky”. Everything that is paintable is covered and would take days to see it all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We finished a 10 day RV camping trip with a one night stay in Healsville, the center of Yarra Valley. The next day we returned the RV in Melbourne and went right back out to the valley with our son and his girlfriend for two more days. We had a great time touring wineries and sampling a wide range of white and reds. For anyone that is familiar with the Okanagan Valley in B.C., the scenery of the Yarra is remarkably the same. Interesting; the wineries have a similar history as the southern Okanagan. Both the Yarra and Okanagan took off in popularity about 30 years ago.

The area offers cheese tasting and wonderful restaurants. We also toured an animal sanctuary complete with many Australian species including the 10 most deadly snakes!! The slideshow gives an idea of the terrain and has a few fun shots of animals.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Nice surprise: we decided to travel up along side the Murray River. It is Australia’s largest and longer river originating in the Snowy Hill mountains (ski hills !!) to Adelaide about 2000km. We started in Swan Hills a historical town initially growing a fruit industry based on irrigation from the Murray. We travelled down to Echuca, another history river town. Along the way we stopped at Lake Boga and home of a secret World War II airbase. The base serviced Catalina and other large amphibious aircraft.

Gum trees line the river shores and have bark that sheds like a Arbutus tree leaving a smooth multicoloured skin. Wood crafters make artsy products to full furniture sets and cabinets. The wood is red in colour and beautiful.

We elected to do a tourist trip on a steam paddle wheeler and it definitely was worth the effort. It was one of the highlights of the trip so far. There are several ships in working order that were built in the late 1800’s. They still burn wood, generate steam, run extraordinarily quiet and run in a meter or more water. The Murray River is awesome and make sure you take a paddle wheeler boat ride if you are in the area.

We are spending the night in Bright, a ski village in the only high mountain range in Australia. We will travel into wine country tomorrow: Yarro Valley!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Almost missed posting a few pictures of the Grampian Mountain range. They are relatively small cluster of mountains that jut out of the prairie surrounding them. It was the hottest days so far with temperatures into the low 40’sC. The mountains are a mix of extremes: waterfalls to burned off hillsides. We travelled from the Grampians to Swan Hills.

[portfolio_slideshow id=235]