Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Bendigo and Hepburn Spa & dayleford
Bendogo was our first glimpse of lots of olden architecture. We liked the town except they didn't like RV'ers . They had no free areas, so we found our own, off rd like we can, in the suburbs ,in the bush. It was an old mining site, (they are everywhere). We visited the chinese Museum, they had amassive population in the Gold rush days. we also went to the Science and Discovery Centre, it kept us busy all day.
Next we stayed at Maldon, very old gazetted historic town. we loved it here. It has the most old time mining stuff intact. Then to Hepburn Spa, we had lots of free mineral water, did some walks , but the tracks had been damaged in the flood.
At Daylesford we saw the ex convent gallery. Its a yuppy town with lots of cafes & inflated prices. The Lavender farm was rustic & quaint. I have a pic from the beer shed in Echuca, don't know if I've put it in already.
We saw the flood first hand at Vaughan Springs.
Camped up high & dry we watched from above. The roof of the rotunda shows the level, and the water is lapping at the step of this house. The house was built too close to the creek.
Portland and Surrounds
At Portland we saw the beach for the first time since May last year (at Newcastle).
Its very windy here, lots of wind farms around. We visited the small but vey good Botanic Gardens. Unlike other Bot Gards they have nearly everything named. they have a Dahlia Festival in march , so they were coming on. They had the most roses I've seen. we found my favourite "Tequila Sunrise". We also saw Sunrise, so I wonder if it was a parent of TS? I did not see my other favourite "Tiffany".
We did the ride on the tourist tramway. They never had trams, but they got these from around the state in decay and restored them. A track was laid through the town and now is quite popular. They have a running commentary along the way.
We have also found we can use our Health Care Concession Card in Vic, where it was not accepted in NSW. Save some $, so we are more likely to go to an attraction when we get a discount.
We did a lot of hiking around the coast line. from Portland you can do the 250klms Great South West Walk. we did little bits of it! We hiked to the seal colony & through the coastal enchanted forest. We also saw the amazing petrified forest, which is not petrified at all, just looks like tree trunks. They say its sand formations, fascinating.
The picture of the truck is at the big Port. Its unloading woodchip, and somehow those trucks stay up at 45 degrees whilst the chip falls through to a hopper, then onto a conveyor belt to fall in a stockpile .
We are now at Dartmoor, which has Cedar & Cypress trees felled but carved into figures by a chainsaw artist. Depicting the war, one has scenes from nursery rhymes. Pics next time.
Hamilton Victoria, Wool Capital of the world!
So they call themselves. We did see a lot of sheep, and it looks good grazing land around here. But everywhere we've been has been green and it seems a bit dry here comparatively. They have the BIG WOOL BALES.
We stayed out at Wannon Falls which are part of the volcanic region we are travelling through. We treked up a volcano, climbed down in Lava Tubes and saw the drystone walls the settlers had to erect if they wanted stock to be able to traverse the paddocks. We started to see more fellow travellers around here. Marion saw her first snake- an olive/brown thing!! Chris was hoping to catch trout- no luck
Dunkeld - Mt Sturgeon Homestead
Marion won a night at Mt Sturgeon Homestead. She won this by entering a competition, writing about her best Dining experience. She had no idea until they arrived what it was like. It was a built in the mid 1800's , a working sheep station, 3 klms from Dunkeld. Dunkeld is at the southern tip of the Grampians.
The prize value was $940 per night. It had 1 master bedroom, 4 double bedrooms & a single. The front part of the house had a flagstone carraigeway dividing it from the back part. It had a drawing room (parlour) with piano,& a formal dining, with huge table. The kitchen eating room was massive, had everything except food. It had a casual lounge , 3 bathrooms with clawfoot baths. (We filled them to the brim too.
Remember we havent had a bath for 13 months.) I washed & dryed the laundry in the big laundry. Chris picked the veges from the garden.
During the night we woke to strange noises, I lay there thinking its an old enough to be haunted. Soon Chris got up & realised it was the automatic sprinklers going off, (about 1.30am).
chris also left some lights on, as you wouldnt know your way if you got up in the dark. You could play hide & seek very good. If you yelled from the kitchen you couldn't be heard from the main bedroom. It was nice to see how the other half live, but I wouldn't want to clean it . The next day breakfast was provided at the Royal Mail Restaurant in Dunkeld. We ventured up Picanniny Mtn, for great views. But als this is all we saw of the Grampians, because of the floods. Next Time
11 days at Ballarat, 20klms out of town is Enfield, We stayed at my friend Tracey's, boyfriends place (Andy's). Chris was kept busy playing with Tracey's 4yr old (Tasha). I don't know who was the bigger kid. We went to Soveriegn Hill, (the best paid outing of our trip.) Rode our bikes round town, did a Ghost Tour. Tried to fish & had some picnics. Whilst there we had a car service. Also got new Cooper ST's and had our rims replaced because 1 was cracked AGAIN!! Because Rhino's are discontinued he chose Black Wasp. We spent 1 day riding thr Skipton Rail Trail.From Smythsdale to Skipton 37 klms, then we rode back. What a marathon. Those last few klms were hard. AND it was 39 degrees and a lot was in the seering sun!! Some of the track was washed out from the floods.
We have been to a lot of flood areas, Creswick, Clunes & Skipton and seen the devastation, Then they get flooded again!!.They are now wanting a lot of rivers in the towns CLEANED up.
Anyway, we have kept high & dry. The only place we did not get to was Halls Gap. We had planned to drive through the Grampians, from H G to Dunkeld, but they had land slides & a lot of the trails were affected by the flooding rain. We did get to Dunkeld straight from Ballarat, so we saw the Sthn Grampians. It looked great & we want to go back one year.
Monday, December 27, 2010
echuca
last night Chris had to help out these young kids who bogged their nissan trayback, not far from our camp.
They asked him , he was the only one with a winch. they had been trying to get it out by towing for a few hours. As it was with his help it still took another 3 hours. They had to dig a lot of dirt. The engine was running for all the time. Muffler was under water Fineally out at 11.30pm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
