Its been a wet spring in Australia with floods right across the country. Even parts of Australia that is normally desert is in flood.
In the little part of the country that I call home, Melbourne, has had its fair share of rain and at one of the local fields the new sport bicycle water skiing has been invented. And a fun sport for the family as we can see.
But for me my cycle trail is often blocked at the causeway at Koroit Creek Estuary which floods at high tide.
One of the quaint aspects of this little part of Melbourne is the little fishing villages up the little inlets.
There are breaks in the rain and that is an opportunity of enjoying the aspects of beauty of my part of Port Philip.
It’s my last day in Melbourne before I fly out to the Northern Hemisphere
First time in a couple of years, 2020 when I was locked down in Spain and the UK
I took the mighty Breva for a little ride to warm up the oil before it went into hibernation.
I have to admit late April and almost summer weather in Melbourne
Almost made my question my decision to leave ALMOST
But I did get a last swim in for the season
There is an method to storing motorbikes
Both bikes got a good wash, petrol stabiliser in the tanks to ensure the fuel doesn’t go off and over inflating the tyres to ensure no flat spots. Then there is hooking the batteries up to chargers so they are not dead when I return in 6 months or so.
My dear biker friends if you haven’t got a lift table to work on your bike do!!!
No more laying on the concrete to get to the sump plug or trying to get the oild tray around the centre stand. Agh Bliss.
So my Melbourne bike fleet is all packed away and my Northern Hemisphere Breva is serviced and ready for its next adventure.
There is always something quirky in a blokes garage.
Mine is a clinker rowing boat I built back in my sailing days.
The bow seat makes a great hanging space for my riding gear.
It’s a long haul flight from Melbourne to London.
And by the time I got to London the full planes on the flight left me in no doubt that long distance air travel was back following the pandemic.
It is two years to the day that I left London at the first of the covid 19 onslaught on a repatriation flight back to Australia.
It’s time to recommence the journey I was on then when I was locked down in Spain on my way to Morocco.
It’s spring here and the flowers in the local park add colour to the day.
And the familiar sites of London, the old Red telephone boxes and the red double decker buses are there.
In a couple of days I pick up the mighty Breva ii and make make final preparations to catch the ferry to Spain late next week.
So yes cautiously international adventures are back.
So let’s raise our glasses and have a drink to that.
A 33 hectare urban forest created in the 1970’s from an old bluestone quarry
What a wonderful vision of the then Local Government Council to create this haven in what was then a very industrial suburb devoid of open space.
Only about 12 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne
The fate of the quarry was sealed when the digging hit an underground spring and the lake was formed.
Over the the four months of the Melbourne lockdown I have walked the trails of this urban forest.
Seen the changes as winter turned to spring and now as summer approaches.
The trees in blossom
The resident black swans with their cignets
The flock of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos that came for winter and went back bush in the Spring. Unlike us terrestrial animals free to fly to and fro as they please.
The bird life by the lake is vibrant wattle birds, butcher birds all too quick for amateur wildlife photographer like me
But this little blue wren wasn’t shy and struck the perfect pose.
The hard bluestone walls that surround the lake loom large and bare the cracks from the many explosions that were used to extract the bluestone.
Those cracks now form handholds for climbers to practice their skills.
And in the rock faces there is the subtle marks of human presence
Mosaics of the birds in the park
And as the days got longer and warmer and summer is only an month or so away
The Blue Tongue Lizards come out to bask in the sun.
Walking in Newport Lakes and cycling on the Williamstown bay trail (posts here, here and here.) have made me appreciate my local space very much. How lucky I am to have access to these elements of nature in a big city.
After for months of lockdown in the City of Melbourne the restrictions that have kept Melbournians separate from the rural areas of the State will be lifted in a few days.
The Mighty Breva will roam again across the local countryside, on the coastal roads and over the windy mountain passes.
But before I sign off my local explorations
A pelican in flight a couple of evenings back down at the Koroit Creek estuary.
