Out of Tasmania, back on the main land of Australia. Melbourne and Heather and Derek McDougal.



The ferry trip thru the Bass Strait, was unuventful, we left and it was raining in Devonport, we arrived in Melbourne and it started to rain as night fell, making it more challenging to negotiate the downtown area, but as  usual the GPS with the Sygic app saved the day and after 48 km I arrived to the home of Derek and Heather McDougal, very close friends of Dianne and Haydn Durnell who had asked them to open the doors of their house to me, and after I arrived, parked the bike in their garage, we all had a very good dinner of Thai food and around midnight we got to bed after a very long day.
On Sunday Derek and Heather took me for a scenic ride to the Dandenongs, mountains in the area of the city of Melbourne, which has a good lookout called Sky High, where you can see in a clear day the whole city and the bay. At the top there is a restaurant and a local that can be rented for social events specially weddings. On the way down we stopped at a little touristic village called Sassafras that has a number of cafes, tea rooms and attractive stores for anybody interested in shopping, I have to confess that if I had not been traveling by motorbike with limited space for luggage, I would have succumbed to the temtation of shopping.
On the way back to the house we visited the neighborhood park donated by a wealthy bussinessman after he sold the quarry that made him rich, and now it has become a series of three lakes and the park.
In the afternoon we watched the Grand Prix race happening around a lake within the city of Melbourne where Lewis Hamilton driving a Mercedes car lost to the Ferrari team driven by a german Vettel and a finish Raikonnen who had a better and winning strategy.
And to finish the day we all went to dinner at the White Rabbit restaurant in Brighton a Melbourne suburb, this city apparently has de biggest city area than any other city in the world.
After a very comfortable night sleep at their home we all parted in different directions knowing that it may be impossible to re pay their hospitality, although if they happen to travel to California I will be happy to treat them as they treated me, there are debts that can not be re paid with money, mine to the Durnells and the McDougals is one of those. And it is all due to the fact that we travel using a motorcycle and that made Haydn to approach me after disembarking in Puerto Natales in the Chilean side of Tierra del fuego 12-13 years ago. I am spending the night at Bairnsdale just before the Alpine Highway tomorrow, there is no more rain just a lot of wind.

                                         View of Berwick from the McDougal's home

                                          Heather admiring a Bonsai in Sassafras

                                          Derek and Heather at the Bonsai store

                                         Heather and me admiring the artworks of a Bonsai Master

                                          Bonsai in the well of a dead tree

                                         Schematic explaining the view at Sky High

                                          Hazy day for a view of Melbourne

                                          Bottle brush flower only found in Australia

                                         Same family, different bottle brush flower, this has been transplanted to the
                                         US specially California that has similar climate

                                          Lake and park in an old quarry in Berwick

Derek and Heather admiring Bonsai trees, Derek's brother is a Bonsai expert.