A wet day today but luckily not at the time when we had to do the packing thing in the morning. The night was very windy and wet but our camping skills must have improved now as everything stayed attached and everything that was supposed to stay dry did!
Our aim today was to travel through the 'Golden Trail', the heart of Australia's old gold mining country. We passed through some very dry, almost moon-like country but the rain soon arrived and that got us thinking. This rain seems to follow us around. We could sell our travels to ozzie farmers that are a bit short of rain.
The first town on the list was Ballarat which is one of the biggest inland cities in Australia and one of the towns where the earlist gold discoveries were made. Speaking with some of the locals it apparently gets really hot in summer and just this last summer it was into the 40's on numerous occassions.
Next stop was Clunes which is also an historical gold mining town and has been used as a filming location for films such as Ned Kelly and Mad Max. Clunes had the most amazing old fashioned chocolate and sweet shop there and we just had to try one of their hot chocolates and cakes.
A final destination for the day was the town of Maldon which again is an old
mining town, renowned for it's well-preserved 19th century buildings with it's broad footpaths shaded by corrugated iron verandahs, buildings and cottages made from local stone, old-fashioned shop fronts and deep stone gutters.It also has a great working rail station which runs daily steam train trips to Castlemaine.We did venture to the local campsite, but when we got there it really wasn't much to write home about and we thought with the rain around we would treat ourselves to a b&b.
Kate found this fantastic little place with spa bath and, more importantly, queen-sized bed! Aahh, I can finally stretch out and get a good nights rest.
Sleep well everyone.
Simon and Kate
PS. We are here
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