Up, up to Mt Dandenong

We rented a car for 2 days to do some driving around to locations that are not very convenient with public transport. So I planned a 2-day itinerary to Mt Dandenong and Mornington Peninsula.

ready and watching TV while waiting to go

We paid AUD168 for this 8-seater Toyota Tarago for 2 days, with unlimited kilometers.

hmm....I could get used to this

Leaving home at just before 9am, we drove straight for Mt Dandenong. It took us just under an hour to get there, including time to get lost and make U-turns.

At Woolrich Lookout, we saw a lady unloading her horse to go riding. Joe was very interested in watching her saddle up, and even dared to stroke the horse.

It was very foggy earlier but cleared up a little for us to see some blue sky.

My sleeping beauty was snoozing and oblivious to her surroundings.

From there, we drove north-east to the Silvan Reservoir. We couldn't go in. I think Air Itam Dam is just as scenic.

From the reservoir, we made our way back south to Olinda Falls but found that we would actually have to hike to the falls.

The lazy people that we are, we decided to just skip it and made our way to the Pie in the Sky Restaurant - reputed to have the best pies in Melbourne.

It was a very child-unfriendly restaurant. It even had a sign that said "children must be seated at all times".


Our meal cost a total of AUD61. Very expensive for the mediocre portions.

I dunno why blogger rotate my photo again.

While it did taste good, it wasn't anything great to shout about and I wouldn't otherwise fly and drive all the way here just for it.


We found this cute little shop across the road from the restaurant.

It had a little play area at the back of the shop and that made Joe's face light up.

After lunch, we made our way to Skyhigh Mt Dandenong.

This is the place that has supposedly the best views around. There is a entry fee of AUD5 per car.

Unfortunately for us, it was very foggy and we really couldn't see much. Also, the whole area was made really unpleasant by stinky smokers and open burning. I counted at least 10 spots of open burning and the whole place smelt really smoky.


After we were done, it was still quite early in the afternoon so we opened up the Melway to look for a nearby playground.

Ahh....happiness for the kids while Papa and KongKong took a catnap in the car.

We didn't stay very long because I just couldn't stand the smell of smoke. I'm anti-smoke. My nose is a super-sensitive smoke-detector.

So when the kids looked tired enough...

...we packed them up into the car and headed to Knox City because we had about 2 hours (of no sunlight) to kill before dinner.

For dinner, we met up with Hailey, Kelvin and Caitlyn (who is 3 days younger than Joy). They are the very kind people who have been lending us their car for the last few weekend.

avocado salad....very huge and good.

No prizes for guessing where we ate. That's right! Sofia's again! Besides tasting good, it's quite value for money. Six adults and 3 kids had a Pasta Mista, a salad (the pic above) and a Baked Avocado (entree) and we still had left over to tar pau. The total amount....also AUD61.

It was a long tiring day, followed by another long and tiring but very beautiful day to Mornington (Fri) - which I will blog about tomorrow. Got to get to bed for another long day out tomorrow (Sat).