Day 5 - Maddy's House

Not far from Maddy's are the Dandenongs. After dropping Maddy to work, we rustled up a picnic and made our way to Dandenong Ranges National Park. Maddy had recommended that we check out the 1,000 Steps which forms part of the Kokoda Memorial Track which commemorates Australian WWII servicemen. She did mention that lots of people walk up the steps for fitness and despite being a Tuesday lunchtime there were loads of people in their active wear trekking up and down the steps. Then there was me in my denim shorts, not quite anticipating the reality of walking up 1,000 steps. The steps were of all different shapes and sizes so it was like tackling Machu Picchu all over again! The way back down was 1,000 times easier than walking up that's for sure. Back at the bottom we tucked into our picnic before driving up to the highest point in the Dandenongs, SkyHigh Mt Dandenong. From here you get a spectacular view out over Melbourne and Port Philip Bay. Despite being a little hazy it was still a great view. There were also a couple of gardens which we had a mooch around before heading back down. On the way back down we stopped off in the towns of Olinda and Sassafras, which are cute little village like towns with lots of cute shops.

In the evening we experienced our first ever drive in movie. As you can imagine I was very excited! Fortunately we had Maddy to show us how it's done as we left the house armed with blankets and pillows. With two people you would both just sit in the front and watch through the windscreen but because there was 3 of us we needed to be a little creative. We therefore reversed the car into the screen, opened the boot, put down the back seats and then covered it in blankets. It was a bit of a squeeze but we fit. We watched Murder on the Orient Express which was pretty good. It was also quite entertaining watching the other cars around us. People's brake lights were going on and off, indicators were flashing and at one point someone's hazard lights went off for about 5 minutes!Read more