Monday, 24 April, 2017
We get up and contemplate what to do about breakfast. Jan had brought home a doggy bag of last night’s leftovers but decided we could not face them so checked them out. There were still the figs, so we had some and brought most of the rest home to put in the frig for when Julie returns.
So we decide to go out for a big breakfast in town. Hugh had found one likely on the Net so we go there. It turns out to be a former record shop which sold albums and CDs but a cafe added in the middle of it.
The primary reason that we stayed overnight in Ballarat is to take the guys to Sovereign Hill – a replica pioneer settlement. So we leave our cafe, after a fine breakfast – so much better than the cuisine of yesterday, and drive to Sovereign Hill. We actually arrive a little bit before opening but get through the queue to enter. The lady very kindly allowed Jan and Hugh to use Senior’s rates.
We turn off the main street to go for our first activity – panning for gold.
Apparently they do seed the stream every day with some gold flakes. One young girl claimed that she had found 5 already. Jan and Hugh – still waiting for that fortune. From there we walk through the town.
One of the things to do was take a ride around town in a buggy drawn by four draft horses.
We went to the gold smeltery where we had spent some time earlier. There was a demonstration of converting melted gold into a gold bar, quite impressive.
The following are photos of some of the sights from Jan and Hugh.
We eventually got tired of the settlement so we went across the carpark to the Gold Museum, relatively new to me, it was not there last time I was here, probably circa 30 years ago.
See Peter I do go into museums, occasionally. Dr. Blake is a fictional TV character solving murder mysteries in the timeframe that the settlement portrays.
It is time to head home so we get on the road back to Melbourne. It is freeway all the way and not a lot of traffic. Even so, I was glad to get home and get out of that car. I really do hate driving these days, especially distances. Who would believe that I did that Melbourne-Adelaide-Melbourne drive around 40 times in the old days. Time to put the feet up and snooze for a while.
But, we are not done today. We have an appointment with our good friends Roy and Selena Moorfield, of duck crawl fame, at the Teahouse Restaurant in China Town in the city. Roy has established a mini-Duck Crawl from the menu of the Teahouse.
An Uber ride home and crash!
That was a really full day,and Peter was impressed Patrick!