Ballarat is a larger town than Bendigo and not as pretty (maybe unfair as we did not have a tour around the town). However, it has the best outdoor museum we have ever been to: Sovereign Hill which represents Ballarat during the gold rush in the 1850’s. Brilliant!
We spent half a day at Sovereign Hill but could have spent longer. Sovereign Hill is a living museum with working exhibits brought to life by costumed characters and over 40 horses. Set on 25 acres of an original mining site, Sovereign Hill is a goldfields town with shops, hotels, a theatre, schools, factories, gold diggings and underground mines to explore.
As well as walking around the exhibits we went to several demonstrations: musket firing, how to make a wagon wheel (the real thing not the chocolate biscuit variety 🙂 ), stage coach harness setup with a 4 horse team and gold pouring. Absolutely fabulous.
Today (29/02/2020) we rode 46km along the Ballarat Skipton Rail Track. Mostly flat except for Nimons Bridge which Paul went under but I stayed on top (looked far too hard). I guess I ought to own up….. we hired electric pedal bikes…… still had to work hard but we covered much more than we would have.
Exhausted so we are now having a relaxing peaceful afternoon looking at the Lake.
Another point of interest for Ballarat is the longest ‘Avenue of Honour’ which was planted in memory of those from the district who served in World War One: 3,912 trees. Very thought provoking.
Tomorrow we head off to The Grampians for 3 nights, see map for route.
