In light of this horrible tragedy, some of my "zombie plague" comments littered through the diary below seem insensitive, and for that, I apologise. Even so, I've left my diary of our trip to Marysville untouched to keep on record what a lovely little place to visit Marysville was, and one day hopefully will be again.
For more information on the current state of tourism in Marysville, see MarysvilleTourism.com.
Details of our trip to Marysville in 2007.
Monday 15th October 2007 - Eltham
We didn't rush. Drove to Eltham, arriving around 12 to have a pie and at our accommodation at 1.
We stayed at Crest Castle, a lovely little B&B in the shape of a castle just out of town. Our room was the "Dunluce Suite", a room in one of the castle turrets. Cosy and warm but situated above the host's study so it felt a little... close.
Crest Castle includes an excellent spa, large garden, bar, pool table, foosball table, common room. For a group of people or friends it would be a lot of fun. We were unfortunately the only ones there and it felt a little like we were staying at someone's house. The hosts were friendly and polite and the situation couldn't be helped, but overall it was a bit creepy.
We actually hope to organise a trip there one day with friends.
We walked around Eltham a bit. We looked at Lower Park and the mini railway (which wasn't operating but looked very extensive), had a coffee near the library. It was a hot day and there was no-one around.
But ultimately Eltham is little more than an outer suburb and feels like it.
On the advice of one of the hosts we drove out to visit the Kangaroo Ground Memorial Tower. The tower was built in 1926 to remember those who died in World War I. The view is beyond stunning. My poor little digital camera just couldn't keep up.
We visited again just after sunset.
Again at the advice of the hosts we had dinner at an Indian Restaurant on the Eltham main strip, Machan Indian Restaurant. We almost didn't go in as the place next door was full of paying customers but the Indian place was sadly empty. We took a punt anyway and are happy we did. Very friendly but respectfully distant staff and brilliant food. The music was also excellent but I didn't brave asking what CD it was.
We spent the night out of the balcony of our room drinking the complementary bottle of wine and eating the complementary packet of Tim Tams, listening to animals kill each other.
Tuesday 16th October 2007 - Eltham to Marysville
Although vaguely disturbed by the sounds of rats and/or possums playing in the walls and on the roof, it was a relaxing night.
We got up very early (5am) and attempted to leave to go watch the sunrise at the lookout but the front door was closed and we were too scared to check if it was locked. We drank coffee and watched the sky change colour from the balcony instead. Napped.
Breakfast was huge and we thought we did well but the host still seemed a little surprised we didn't eat it all. A selection of cereals, yoghurt, toast, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, plunger coffee.
Although they allowed a late checkout we left around 9:30 and drove to Marysville via Kinglake (the long way) to check out a view more lookouts and make the drive a little more interesting. The roads are empty.
We hit Marysville's main strip about 1pm and the place is dead, like the aftermath of a zombie plague. We walk around and discover the residents still manning their stores pretending everything is fine.
The Marysville Lolly Shop really is as good as advertised. There are very similar shops in pretty much every town in the Dandenongs, but they don't sell bacon! Any lolly shop that sells bacon gets my vote. The candle shop (Lit) is nice too but nothing special (no bacon), as is the clothes-made-from-bits-of-animal shop. No ugg boots in size 9 (or bacon).
We have lunch in the Bakery (pretty much the only thing open on a non-peak-season Tuesday). The Bakery's seating section is huge, the place is set up like a mess hall. I suspect during winter the place is buzzing. As it was it was just us and a few zombies.
We were staying at Dalrymples as part of a three night package. The little cottage is self contained, includes a little tiny kitchen, spa, TV, open fire, two bedrooms including one in the loft. The loft is excellent and nice and warm. Everything very swish.
We take a walk around Gallipoli Park (the World Wars seem to be a big deal up this way). Nice little pond full of baby ducks with their overprotective parent ducks and Stephenson River. We start down a 4km walk to the falls but it starts to rain so we duck home.
Our breakfast delivery arrives. Two days worth of food including pancakes and an egg and bacon (!) pie, OJ, fudge and a little loaf of fresh bread. Awesome-o.
We pick Rubys for dinner, the restaurant at The Cumberland. Posh place but attended by young people pretending and failing to be posh. Surprisingly the place was full when we arrived. All hiding from the zombies I suspect.
The meal was excellent.
It's nice to be able to walk everywhere.
So quiet!
Wednesday 17th October 2007
In the morning the birds dance on the roof. It's very loud in the loft. We think about moving downstairs but later discover the downstairs room doesn't have any sheets or doona cover. Oh well. It's cosy enough.
We have the pancakes for breakfast.
Stephenson's Falls fills me mostly with deja vu. I'm sure I'm been there a number of times on school camps. We share the place with only one other couple.
We walk to the top, a steep but short walk that I'm sure two years ago might have caused me a bit of trouble but I didn't find it hard at all after walking up the stairs at the station every day for the past few years. Somehow though it just isn't all that cool from above. You can't really see where it's going...
On the way back we go to Bruno's Sculpture Garden. Ask anyone about Marysville (especially someone in Marysville) and they'll say "have you been to Bruno's yet? It's great!"
Now I can too.
We had lunch (Beef and Guinness Pie) at the Fudge Patisserie, bumping into a friend's mum whom I hadn't seen for years.
We drove up 5km of unsealed road to Keppel Lookout which presents us with a stunning view over Marysville and the mountains. A short walk from there is the Three Towers Lookout, but we can't figure out why it's called that.
Drive out of Marysville to Buxton to Crystal Journey, a shop which sells Crystals and other girlie stuff. I buy a tiny cow.
From there we drive toward Narbethong and stop off at Things of Sand and Stone to buy a heap of garden ornaments.
We get a little lost looking for a lookout and end up driving up Lady Talbot Drive for about 10km. The drive is a 30km round trip and includes lots of stunning walks. We find it all on the map and decide to come back tomorrow, but not before spotting Keppell Falls from the lookout and having a break at the Taggery River picnic area.
Dinner was at Marylands Restaurant, next door to where we were staying. Two courses each and a glass of wine included as part of our package but we go for dessert and another glass of wine each. Very very rich food. Crab Tortellini, Venison, Spring Onion Gnocchi, Passionfruit Tart and Pinapple Ginger Tart. I wanted to have a cognac by the fire but decided it would be a little creepy, as the place was deserted. Excellent service though.
Vaguely think about coming back to stay there one day. If only to play croquet.
Thursday 18th October 2007
Going to be a hot day today, but we expect to be undercover most of the day so we bring our jackets anyway.
Drive up Lady Talbot Drive again to Keppel Falls walk. 2km walk following the river to the falls. Stunning! A huge tree has fallen over the falls just in front of the extended lookout platform but we climb over and sit on a rock to watch the water.
Further drive to The Beeches. We walk the 2km to Taggerty River Crossing the the 2km back via "The Beeches" walk. Absolutely gorgeous. Much of the first walk was just bushwalk and lots of hill but toward the end the path plunges down through rainforest to the river and everything is moss, falling water and little stairs through rocks. The Beeches walk and Taggery River crossing were beyond description. Loved it.
We drive from there up to Lake Mountain and keep the cafe guy company by having lunch. Only two other cars in the massive empty carpark. We decide we're too tired to walk to the top and drive back down.
All the roads have orange reflectors and yellow lines. For the snow...
We turn left toward Woodspoint as far as "The Big Tree". Apparently the tallest tree in Victoria, it didn't look much taller than the rest of the trees around. But 80+ metres is tall, I'll admit...
We have a spa, followed by the one hour massage (in our package).
We eat the bread we received as part of our breakfast but we're still hungry so we walk down to the pub. The pub looked pretty good but we grab a six pack of Coopers Stout and grab a pizza from across the road. We miscalculate the size of the pizza (their "large" was a "family"), but it didn't taste much good anyway.
After dinner we drive to Stephenson's Falls to see it floodlit. It's nice. The walk in the dark is scary. We see a lot of kangaroos on the road, the first non-pest mammals we've seen on the trip. Before that we'd see about four rabbits and a fox on our walks.
Friday 19th October 2007
We sleep in and make the most of the late checkout. We have one last walk around town and buy a few things including a Gunni and some Fudge.
We drive to Warburton via the Woods Point road. Lovely drive through the forrest. We accidentally stop at the Big Peninsula Tunnel on the way so we walk down and have a look.
Warburton is full of little touristy antique and second hand stalls. A lot of fun but a lot of rubbish too. The Yarra River flows through it and looks about as good as it's going to get. Full of very happy ducks.
We get to Olinda in the Dandenongs around 4 and stop off at another Antiques store, followed by Sky High. Melbourne is invisible within the smog.
Home!