the dandenongs

the view from the dandenongs

frankly, why wouldn't you want to visit a place called the dandenongs (ha!)? i couldn't care less if it was a hole (which it wasn't) because it has such an awesome name. and one of the main villages: sassafras! "i live in sassafras. in the dandenongs (ha!)". i almost want to move there just to say it.

the dandenongs (ha!) is a hilly-region (suburb?) of melbourne, only about 45 mins from town. it oozes money and charm, in a way that only hilly-villages can. it was raining, on and off all day, so we opted against doing one of the dozen or so hikes that are in the area and instead settled on being (window) shoppers.

sassafras, like all touristy mountain/seaside villages, was quaint. it had all the necessary shops to place it squarely in the tourist town bracket: the 3.5 cafes, 2.2 high end restaurants, 3 up-market clothing stores, a vintage shop, a lolly-shop, a gourmet food store (which we thoroughly enjoyed), 1000 antique shops and a toy-store. a proper one, with wooden toys and rocking horses in the window. we had a lovely time chatting with the owner of the gourmet shop, were baffled by the quantity of teapots and mugs in the tea-shop (blinded, more like), and well fed at the cheaper of the cafes. after we perused all the shops, we got back in the car and sped off to the next village (olinda) to see what it had to offer.

well, it had the 3.5 cafes, 2.2 high end restaurants, 3 up-market clothing store, a vintage shop, a lolly-shop, a gourmet food store (which we thoroughly enjoyed), 1000 antique shops and a toy-store. a proper one, with wooden toys and rocking horses in the window. the same one as sassafras. and the same lolly shop. oh, but olinda did have a jewlery store. take that sassafras!

we decided, much as we love window shopping in the expensive stores and sampling delicious foods in the gourmet shop, it was time for us to leave the dandenongs (ha!). sadly, we didn't stop to see puffin' billy, an old steam train that takes you on a 50km journey from belgrave to olinda and back, nor did we manage to get to the zipline place (too expensive anyhow really) but we rather enjoyed meandering the village streets. and honestly, with the rain clouds looming, we just kind of wanted to move on. so we did.

dandenongs (ha!)
xo