It was almost a month after I returned to Melbourne last October 2014, it was my first day to really go out again to explore some places that I haven’t seen yet. The place we were targeting was somewhere near the city which was Dandenong Ranges National Park. On this trip, I discovered and learned that this National Park has a lot to offer to anyone.
As my friends got a map of the national park, when they were discussing places visit near the city, they selected a garden. At first I really don’t understand the name of the garden because I was somewhat unfamiliar with the term. The name of the garden became clear to me when we arrived at the place. The day we went out was still Spring season and since we were technically inside the mountain, it was really cold and it felt like it was winter.
The name of the garden we visited is National Rhododendron Garden. I honestly not familiar with that flower family. I felt that I never heard it before or I forgot it from my secondary school years.
We had lunch first at the parking area as the garden does not have a facility such as picnic area where we can eat. After lunch, we went inside the National Rhododendron Garden through the store beside the closed main gate and stopped for a while to look around inside the store. In the store I found out what Rhododendron flower family look like. After spending sometime at the store I left my friends and took my chances to walk inside the garden. I remembered one funny thing happened to me inside the garden. At the time I was there and following the path walk, I was a fool looking around and taking photos using my DSLR and yet I never immediately noticed that I am taking photos without knowing that my camera does not have memory card. Yes, I was crazy taking photos without checking the screen of my camera after takings shots where some messages that my memory card slot was empty, because of the situation I never able to save all my shots. Since I already spent time walking in the garden, I was quite sensitive with the time and I knew that my friends were waiting at the store. I tried to return to the garden using my iPhone and all I was able to do was to have a couple of shots as my souvenir to the garden. Most of the memories of Rhododendron garden were all in my memory.
–Some photos that I quickly captured with my iPhone before leaving the garden
I returned to the store and in few minutes we left the garden. When we were back on the road, my friends checked again the map of Dandenong Ranges and then they agreed to visit a picnic ground which became our next stop that day. We went at Grant Picnic Ground. I honestly had no idea what to expect in the place until we saw a lot of visitors looking around at the bird feeding area. Since we had limited time in the place as it will close at 5PM, my friends bought seeds so they can enter in the fenced feeding area and to have a moment with the birds such as Rosella, native and wild birds.
I let my friends feed the bird while I take in charge of photo shoot. There still birds in the feeding area but when my friends entered in the fenced area, birds started to flock together and slowly approached my friends as they saw the food/seeds. We started to laugh as we heard screaming. It was fun-filled sight as my mates felt a little bit nervous when birds were so close to them physically, some birds flew to their heads, some stepped on their arms or feet, birds comes wherever the food was. My friends were screaming as they felt the bird’s claws and its pointed toes. All of us were enjoying what we were seeing inside the feeding area.
–Crimson Rosella
–King Parrot (the one that I tried to chase with my camera as its colour is really striking)
Last thing I did was I went inside the souvenir shop just to look around and just check if I can find post cards that will leave memories of Grant Picnic Ground. Then after few more minutes had been passed, we decided to leave the place as it closed the feeding area and the shop since the business day is over for the day. This how we ended our adventure.
–Cockatoo
–Cockatoo
–Cockatoo Flying
