Monday 10th February - Pakenham
I've taken Clive's books away until he gets the web pages completed, as nothing has been done for February yet! The showers from last night cleared around 9am and led to an overcast day. It was only 18.8 last night and got to 24.0 during the day. It's funny to watch the news and weather and hear them complaining about the humidity and warm nights. I think they need to visit Queensland to really understand these statements. We drove to Belgrave to see the Puffing Billy Railway and the steam train. There were cars and buses everywhere and no where to really park and get out, so we had to make do with driving around to get a look. Clive went over the railway line and then saw some people walking, so he headed in that direction. It turned out to be the back of the train sheds, so we were able to get some pictures from here of the train. Because we couldn't park anywhere I wasn't even able to go into the gift shop. From here we went through the main street of Belgrave and took a couple of pictures of murals on the front of a pub. Then it was off to try and beat the train to Menzies Creek. On the way we saw an old railway bridge with some cars parked beside the road, so figured the train hadn't come through here yet, so pulled over and waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later we heard the puffing and tooting of the train approaching. We were able to catch it going over the bridge. Excellent timing. Now onto Menzies creek station, where we pulled into a car park and Clive parked the car so that I could see out the front window. A good spot really. We were lucky enough to see two trains going through. Our one from Belgrave going up the line and one returning heading back to Belgrave. With both stopped at the station, if you only want to do a short trip you can change trains here. After both trains had departed we had a look at the old railway yard museum. Instead of doing a U turn and heading back the way we came, clive set the GPS for home. We ended up on the bumpiest road we have ever been on. I was literally being thrown from side to side and lifted off the seat. This road went on for 2km until we had bitumen again. Good one Clive! We drove past the Cardinia Reservoir and back onto the major roads heading home. We had McDonalds for lunch.