Visiting Vincent and Hitting the Road

March 8-9, 2025

What a top spot for Parkrun. Not the easiest course, but a pearler of a place for our Saturday morning ritual. A weekend getaway in Melbourne for a bit of a break and we started things off at Studley Parkrun. We gathered with the few hundred other runners and walkers beside the Yarra River in a lovely bushland park and waited for the Run Director to do the briefing.

As is the usual process she asked if there were any first timers and when we’d given them a rousing clap she moved on to ask,  “Do we have any visitors?” I raised my hand, along with a few others, ready to say there were a couple of participants from Tasmania.

“London,” said a lady in front of me, wearing an Ealing Eagles running club singlet.

“Oh, welcome,” said the Run Director, as we all oohed at the fact we had an international participant amongst us.

“Bristol,” came a voice behind me.

“Bristol!” repeated the Run Director with enthusiasm.

I began to lower my hand just little.

“South Africa,” said a man at the front.

“South Africa!!” the Run Director again repeated with amazement.

My raised hand began to feel very underwhelming by comparison and I continued to slowly lower it further. Then a lady to my right said, “Switzerland.”

“SWITZERLAND!” the Run Director said with great excitement.

That was it. My hand went down. I can’t compete with that and say “Port Sorell” in a meagre voice, so we all clapped the visitors and Steve and I just kept our wimpy and domestic Tasmanian status very quiet. 

We set off, amongst the trees and beside the river. We weaved along the trail with rocks and roots aplenty waiting to grab hold of an unsuspecting foot, then up and down hills, along gravel paths and over a swinging bridge. We certainly weren’t fussed about our time and stopped to take photos in this lovely picturesque setting, but we did rev up for a “sprint” finish through the flags at the end. A great start to the day. 

After a stop back at our hotel to freshen up, we ventured into the metropolis of Melbourne to see a Van Gogh exhibition. It was wonderful. His art work was projected around the walls of a vast space, with accompanying music, and it was both peaceful and moving as we got a sense of his tortured soul as the years progressed. We spent quite some time just sitting and looking at the paintings appear around the space, taking in the emotive music and just immersing ourselves in the experience. Wonderful.

City fatigue doesn’t so much creep up on us, as land with a slap and we’d had enough of the hustle and bustle of the city, so we hopped in our hire car and took off to find somewhere leafy. We headed towards the Dandenong Ranges, passing through Fern Tree, Emerald and Upwey.

“I remember those names from past bushfires,” I said to Steve. It was a 34 degree day, hot with a blazing sun and clear skies, but thankfully no wind, but it was a reminder of how precarious some places can be, at the mercy of the environment and weather. Australia is certainly a place that can feel the full force of nature and we were fully aware that while we were reminding ourselves of the experiences of fire in the towns we were passing through, at the same time the people of Queensland and Northern New South Wales were battling Cyclone Alfred and the wind, rain and destruction being thrown at them. We were again thankful for our small island state that rarely sees extremes.

The drive was lovely, through tall trees, forests and bushland and then passing through small towns and villages. We stopped in Kalista for a bite to eat at the Kalista Tearooms and had the most delicious salad and veggie stack that saw us right and ready to be on our way. As we left, we stopped to say hello to some locals sitting in the tree and below the tea room windows. They weren’t fazed at all, so we admired them and then set off.

It was another lovely drive back, with some lookouts to stop at, each time feeling the mercury hit us as we stepped out of the cool of the car and into the heat of the day. Then back to our digs, for Day 1 in the bag. A bit of nature, a bit of art, a bit of reflection and a top day. It’s always nice to be out and about and see what we can discover along the way. We’ll tootle off tomorrow and see what we can see along the way for another day.

Day 2

Well, I can’t say this one was as interesting as the first. We set off to explore Castlemaine and I had in my head that we’d find lots of interesting stories from the gold rush era, given this was a big part of Castlemaine’s history. Alas, we didn’t really find that. There were some interesting buildings, if we looked up. We could see some of the original facades from the colonial period, but as a town, it didn’t really hit the mark for us, in terms of interest or discoveries. Ah well, that’s what exploring is all about, we discover some pearlers and also some slight disappointments. Or maybe we just looked in the wrong places. 

We continued on and motored into Malden. This was a nice little town, with an interesting vibe and possibly a little alternative. The main street had lots of period buildings and it was just a nice little place to visit. Again though, not a lot to really discover. It was nice to visit, but we didn’t really discover much of any real interest. We just didn’t seem to be hitting the mark today.

On our way back we stopped off at the Thomastown Pioneer Precinct, where we saw the site of Westgarthown, where there were the remains of Zeigell’s Farm. This area was settled by German immigrants in 1850 and the original site is still there, with the original Lutheran Church and Lutheran cemetery, with some headstones engraved in German. In the 19th century, about 5000 German immigrants arrived in Australia and Westgarthown was established by German and Wendish Immigrants. The site itself sits smack bang in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood, so it was really nice to see it still intact and with the original dry stone wall encompassing the original buildings. Very much modern meets historic, just a stone’s thrown from Melbourne. 

So, in the end we did discover some interesting stories and some history we hadn’t known about. It had been a nice getaway with an eclectic mix of Vincent,  mini road trip and just enough city roaming to remind us that we really do prefer the quieter side of life. Even though our travels have kept us reasonably close to home lately, it’s always nice to get out and about and take it as it comes. Homeward bound now to little Tassie until our next outing. Wherever that may be!