Day 23 Cruise Day 12 Melbourne, Australia

Today's trip is all day. We awoke docked in Melbourne and there are hot air balloons over the city.


And a lovely sunrise:



Our last shore excursion is the reverse from the write-up. We have the cruise first down the Yarra river. 

The boat ride was not too exciting, but we got to see some of the city.



Our guide says we are as far south from the equator as San Francisco is north, but the area looks drier.


Then lunch and wine tasting. The food was good, but as usual, I didn't like the wine. I gave most of my tastings to Paul. He, of course, was more than happy to oblige. I had risotto and Paul had smoked brisket of beef. (Ed Note: The smoked brisket was ok, but there was only a slight hint of smoke flavor. Definitely not smoked brisket like you would get in Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, or anywhere else in the American South. And there was no crusty bark, like we have in the states.)


Then we went to the animal sanctuary in a little town called Healesville.


Most of the animals are nocturnal, so we really didn't get to see too much. And it was really hot! We saw the echidna


The kangaroos




The platypus, the goanna



And a Tasmanian devil!


Koalas!



And one unidentified bird that was roaming around the entrance. We would have to Google Lens this one to identify it.

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