Delightful adventures in Melbourne

After a very good sleep and refreshing myself with coffee and breakfast, Christine and I headed towards the Botanical gardens. 

We parked near the observatory entrance and started by looking at the observatory and its history, the buildings nearby and then headed for a little electric bus trip around the gardens, which Christine had pre-booked. 

We were the sole passengers on the first trip of the day so had a delightful private tour with a very personable driver/guide.

Our guide pointed out many of the key features including some fabulous individual plants, including the witch's  finger tree and bunya trees, which I don't think I had seen before.

He also pointed out a tree, whose name I cannot remember, but it's green trunk and branches actually photosynthesize. I had assumed it was merely moss growing on the tree.

He also pointed out a leafless Acacia with stems that photosynthesize.

During the tour he mentioned the large Lake, formed when a deep straight channel was dug to reduce flooding of the Yarra, and the punting on it. Christine and I immediately decided that punting was something we needed to do that day. Upon our return to the starting point of the tour, we investigated the punting option and were directed down to the lake where the operation takes place.  

We decided on and booked a private punt tour for 4:40, before heading into the cafe for lunch. A phone call from the operators as we were finishing lunch asked if we would like to move that tim forward a couple of hours, to which we agreed.

The punting experience was delightful. Our punter and guide pointed out many interesting features and spotted some birds for us. 

Birds included a Nankeen night heron, a purple swamp hen and a snake necked darter.

Interesting features included papyrus and a floating island, the latter without soil but with plants with roots that grew through the foam structure to extract nutrients from the water to keep the blue - green algae under control.

Following that, Christine decided she wanted to make her way slowly back to the car, but demanded that I return via a few interesting features. So I investigated the fern Gully and the rainforest walk, both of which were most enjoyable and interesting. 

We had a short rest before heading to the restaurant which we were supposed to eat at the previous evening. The food was rather lovely and I enjoyed a Vietnamese chicken salad.