Beach Day

We got up and once again had a great breakfast prepared by our hosts and packed to go to St Kilda Beach. As we were approaching the shore, a storm popped up and the temperature dropped dramatically. It just so happened that there is a very small amusement park right next to the beach that we could spend a little time to give the weather a chance to pass over. This park, the Luna Amusement Park was built in 1912 by the same person who designed and built the “Coney Island” amusement park and this was his second design. 

Pretty cool old rides with the first wooden roller coaster built here in Australia. It features a standing bloke who rides at the back of the cars and uses a long wooden handbrake to control the speed of the coaster to keep it from leaving the track! It is either the scariest of most fun job in the world. As it gets to the tops of each hill he is holding the brake with both hands and pulling back as hard as he can with the cars lurching and jumping around! Pretty cool thing to see.

 The park is open to walk around in, so we looked around at all the old signs and paintings. 

While the rain was subsiding and Erin and Blake to a ride on the spider and by then the rain had stopped so we walked across the road to the beach and settled in for the day. It was a little cool and windy, so Erin & I went searching the beach for what we could find. She found some cool pieces of ground down bottle glass that Sandy calls “Sea Glass”

. Erin & I played on the beach for a while and by late afternoon we decided to pack things up and head back. We hooked back up with the rest of the group and went over to a cool little Italian place in the dining district of Carlton, and to Casa Del Gelato for a great top off our meal.

 We once again strolled back to Neal’s through town and had some great conversation along the way. We got back and packed up our stuff, hit the hay early to be ready for the start of our next adventure, our 3 day motorcycle ride on the “Great Ocean Road”. It is ranked #3 of the best roads to ride in the world. Woke up early and heading over now to pick up our rentals to begin the ride. I am a little anxious about this driving on the “left side” thing, but I am sure we will figure it out. Let you know how it goes tomorrow. Another wonderful, full day here Down Under. G’day Mates