Today, Ilana had a long-overdue lunch alone with her sister and I had a long overdue walk in the woods. I decided to go somewhere convenient to get to, so I chose Arthur's Seat, which is on the Mornington Peninsula, about 50 kilometers SSE of where we are staying in Black Rock. Arthur's Seat is the tallest hill in the area and offers fabulous views of Port Phillip Bay, north towards Melbourne as well as south in the general direction of the Bass Strait. It is the picture of the southern view that I open this blog with today.

Arthur's Seat has a chairlift to take you to the top, but for whatever reason it is temporarily closed. I'm sure they'll get it all sorted out in time for the busy summer season. But never mind all that as I came for the walk, not to ride, so I took the Two Bays track, towards the summit.

At the summit, there is a lovely restaurant with a million dollar view. The meals are very reasonably priced there, but they are just as happy to let you just buy a pot of tea and gaze out at the view to the north that the restaurant offers. These lovebirds are doing just that.




And here is the unobstructed view. Nice, huh?



A pot of afternoon tea will only set you back three dollars fifty. Now, what you do then is buy a couple of fresh scones with jam and cream to keep that tea company for another six dollars. The combination is called a "Devonshire Tea" which I assure you is worth every penny.

The truth is, you don't even have to use the restaurant at all, since Arthur's Seat is a state park here and they have ample, free picnic grounds available complete with barbecue stations. The public barbecues are, curiously, electric-heated, coin-operated devices which might sound peculiar given that electric is not ideal for tasty cooking. However, it does make sense when you consider the very considerable danger of bushfires in Australia, especially in summer months. The risk of an outbreak of fire from embers would be just too great.

All in all, it was a good day. Melbourne is that you are close to nice places to visit such close by, pretty much regardless of what direction away from the city you choose to pick. There is an abundance of lovely walks and day trips to experience.