Ballarat

Monday on our way to Ballarat we stopped at Daylesford and had a nice morning tea at Muffy’s as it was freezing cold so after a nice hot chocolate we continued on our way.
Once we set up the van we headed off to Lake Wendouree to take some photos for Peter as last time he saw the lake about 2 years ago it was nearly dry, but now it is totally full which looked really nice.

Tuesday we headed off to Daylesford for a better look, we walked around the shops which were really yuppy but very nice and quaint. We headed down to the lake and had a Devonshire tea at a lovely little boat shed cafe and then went into Creswick and checked out their wool shop which was full of beautifully made angora products.
And in the afternoon we checked out the huge Rivers factory which I imagine is the head office of Rivers, I was trying to find some warm clothes but only ended up with a pair of really thick socks as the weather is unbelievably freezing cold. That night is got down to 4° and the days are averaging 11° which is very unpleasant.

Wednesday was a full day at Sovereign Hill. We had a really good guide that gave us a good history on the place. We watched how they make their boiled lollies and managed to buy a jar of aniseed lollies thanks to Aimee giving us a jar when she was there a couple of years ago we got hooked on them, yum, yum.
We walked around for hours looking at all the sites, it was very interesting, very hilly, but interesting. We then walked over and went through the gold museum, by then our legs were aching so bad, so back to the van, turn the heater on and try and thaw out.

Speaking of Aimee, Aimee has a habit when she is travelling somewhere, she has the need to go to the loo all the time, well thanks to the bloody freezing weather down here I was looking for this special sign every half hour, how annoying.

Thursday it was a day of walking around the city of Ballarat to take photos of all the beautiful old buildings, there were some beautiful sites. The streets are so pretty all the side streets have beautiful old trees that line the streets and in the city the middle sections have lots of statues and lovely rotundas. I took a photo of “Her Majaesty’s Theatre” and then went inside and had a look around it is a beautiful old theatre, I hope it becomes heritage listed as it would be such a shame to see it pulled down at some stage.

From the city we headed out to the Botanical Gardens and walked around for ages, it was very pretty with lots of roses and the biggest trees I think I have ever seen. When we finished there we walked to the end of the gardens where they have the Prison of War Memorial. It is a long walk with large marble walls with over 35,000 names of our soldiers that had been captured in the Boer, World War 1, World War 11 and Korean wars, it was unbelievable just how many had been captured. It was a very impressive memorial section. So once we had finished the walk we headed home to prepare for our move on to Portland tomorrow. Hopefully we will find some warmer weather soon.