Panning for gold

Australia 2013 Backblip #20

We stayed in Ballarat  which was at the heart of the gold rush, so we spent the morning at Sovereign Hill museum.  Most of this is given over to a historical town reconstruction of the 1850s.

We first had a look around the Gold Museum over the road, before looking around the diggers camp area of the town. We then spent about half an hour panning for gold in the stream (just like the people in the blip). We found a few flakes (it was a joint effort!) but it did take us a while! Next, we watched a $160,000 gold ingot being poured before going underground through a mine to find out about the Cornish miners who came over to lend their experience to the gold mining industry.

After lunch, we drove through to Dalesford and tried to find a photographer's gallery on the main street, only to find that he moved away years ago. We only picked up a leaflet for it a few days ago, so that was disappointing!

Next we drove through to Hanging Rock. Unfortunately the park closed at 5pm so we didn't have time to go up the rock, but we did manage to walk all the way around the base. We met a friendly Ranger who pointed out lots of kangaroos down on the horse racing track. We found about 25 at one point, and then about 20 elsewhere.

Given it was too early for dinner, we drove through to Trentham Falls, which weren't as impressive as McKenzie falls, even though the water had further to fall. Dinner was in Woodend and then we drove back to Melbourne.

We had the car booked until tomorrow at about 11am, but the car hire place was closed tomorrow and it was easier for us us to return the car today. In true Aussie fashion, we had to park the car in the street by the car hire building, and then throw the keys in through a open high window. Thanks to Scott & Kelly we then got a lift back to their house.