Energetic Day

Today's adventure didn't involve bikes but instead walking up an extinct volcano. We descended on a cafe in Buninyong, a small town 14km south of Ballarat with fellow adventure seekers Shaun, Kim and Gary Carroll joining us. Once the coffee were finished, thanks to early start times, Andy and Eoin headed off to the Australian Sprint Champs.

Leaving town, we could see Mount Buninyong in the distance rising some 745m above sea level. Parking at Blackberry Lane Picnic area, we head out on the crater walk. A short time later the crater is visible off to our right as a large flatish area covered in ferns. We skirt around the edge before beginning the zig zag climb to the top. Retaining much of tis native vegetation cover, we are on the look out for koalas who love the mountains messmate and manna gum trees. The climb is short and steep making koala spotting challenging and before we know it we are at the top without spotting a single koala.

On the summit stands the 25m high Alexander Bell memorial tower. We climb that too enjoying the views of the surrounding farmland. The journey back down the tower and the hill is much faster and slightly more dangerous with Ella coming off second best to the gravel.

In need of lunch, we stop in Buninyong for a picnic under the shade of a lovely old tree. With the sprint champs imminent, it was important that we fill up the girls as much as possible to ensure they had enough energy. Post lunch it was time for a game of untangle the knot, until the grass got the better of Cath and then it was a quick exit.

Held at St Patricks College, the sun shone brightly for the Australian Orienteering Sprint Champs. Ella entered the M/WN with Andy once again shadowing. Katy also wanted to do her own course, so we did an enter on the day. Katy quickly grasped some of the basic concepts and was pretty happy with herself to complete her first course!

Lake Wendouree

What a fabulous place! We trundled down on our bikes, stopping to meet up with the Candy crew for coffee at a cool little spot, Eclectic Tastes. From there we headed over to Lake Wendouree, with our aim to join up with the Candy's again on the western side at the Adventure playground. 

The Steve Monaghetti running and walking (and riding) track, a nice wide, flat, compacted track makes for quick riding and we are soon there with the girls racking their bikes and disappearing into the playground. 

The large wooden playground has loads of interesting components - a black swan boat, a steamboat ferry, a wooden teepee, a train engine and ticket office. There were numerous swings, slides, monkey bars and a flying fox. Not surprisingly as we are relaxing and chatting on the adjacent grass, we catch the occasional glimpse of the girls.

According to them it's way too soon when we decided it is time to leave! Eoin has already been delegated the job of retrieving the car and our plan involves continuing on to complete the 6km lap of the lake. The path divides and deviates every so often and we opt for the interesting side trip. It's a busy place not only for people but birds too! Eoin is waiting for us and the girls are glad to see him! We load the girls and their bikes into the car while Cath, Andy and I ride back home via the bakery for lunch stuff.

 

Rail Trail Ride

One of the enticements for travelling to Ballarat was riding a rail trail with the kids as suggested by Cath. With some online investigations into the possibilities, we decided on completing part of the Skipton - Ballarat rail trail. With a population around 16,000, in 1883,  the railway provided a link between the gold towns of Haddon, Smythsdale and Scarsdale located to the west of Ballarat and the surrounding pastoral region. Eventually the railway extended to Linton and then Skipton, covering a total distance of 53km. By 1985, the railway was no longer financially viable, the line closed and the lines pulled up. After significant trail work including the restoration of Nimmons Bridge, the rail trail opened in the mid 2000's.

We joined the trail at Pittong with Andy and Eoin dropping off all the girls. They then drove back to Linton to leave the cars and rode backwards to join up with us. Unfortunately as we began another couple on bikes came past towing their dog in a bike trailer! We yo-yoed for a bit before opting for a snack/toilet break in order to create some distance between the two groups.

The trail began in rolling farmland, wind turbines in the distance and skirting around the edge of kaolin mine (white clay used in porcelain.) Within a kilometre, we cross a boardwalk over a small lake and come to a halt. Ella points out the fluffy white scattered amongst the reeds and explains that it is frogs spawn!

Off we set again with the trail entering a forested area. Although it's wide and easy to ride the trail is slightly uphill making Katy work a little harder on her single speed bike. She keeps pointing this out desperate to get a bike with gears! It's not long after that that the boys join us, just in time for another stop at one of the purpose built rail trail shelters.

The Pitting - Linton section about 8km with the final few kilometres a nice gradual descent into town. It was a great positive introduction for the girls and allowed us to plan then next stage. The set up at Linton was ideal - the railway station restored with tables, seats and toilets; a takeaway shop located adjacent to the area provided much deserved hot chips and a mountain bike skills course on the other side allowed for distraction while purchasing the said chips! Personalities shone through in the skills park with Ella trying anything and everything including the planks! Meanwhile Aoife and Katy hung back sussing out the place before eventually giving the pump track a work out. Everyone was having fun, until Katy stacked on one of the hills sliding down, removing a descent chunk of skin from her elbow in the process. Apparently Katy wasn't the only one to fall - one of the adults also had a good tumble from the planks but managed to get up before anyone else saw! Then the chips arrived and life was (mostly) good again!

Post lunch we began the Linton - Scarsdale section another 14km or so. Into Happy Valley we ride although not everyone in our group is happy....Ella who dropped her bike to help Katy when she fell discovered that her bike bell had smashed. Unable to emerge from her sad mood she spent a large portion of the first part of this ride hanging off the back only just keeping us in sight.

Through the trees we could see the dam of Clarksdale Bird Sanctuary but didn't have time for any bird watching today! There were numerous large cuttings including the dilapidated bridge at Cutting #18. A short stop here for more food to climb up to the top with Andy in the lead and all the girls following!

Back on the track cycling through the forest. Our aim was Nimmons Bridge, one of the largest timber trestle bridges in Victoria which crosses the Woady Yaloak river a mere 3km away. Eoin had his second mechanical failure of the day within sight of the bridge - one of his cranks fell off! They managed to put it back on and we all road over Nimmons Bridge admiring the open valley and steep drop off. It was at this point that Andy and now Cath did a u turn, heading back to the cars at Linton. The race was on as to who would make it Scarsdale first.

The kids group were going well despite Ella was still hanging off the back. Then about 3-4km out from Scarsdale, Eoin bike failed again and was unable to be fixed. No problem though, he just continued one legged!! The girls thought this was quite amusing! Over the final few km's we encountered a few animals on the trail. A group of friendly cows who didn't really want to move and several goats. We rolled into the playground at Scarsdale just as the two family cars came into sight! Overall the girls rode the 23km trail really well and we are all keen for another rail trail adventure soon!

Gold Rush Continues

Leaving Sovereign Hill yesterday, we were aware that we'd not exhausted the to-do list and so decided to take advantage of the second day for free ticket. A lazy morning saw us ride into town for coffee. Our rental house was on the Nerrina map (World Cup 1994), on the outskirts of Ballarat making for an excellent bike ride into town. There was a bike trail which meandered along the creek with only the last few hundred metres negotiating roads and cars.

The afternoon was spent back at Sovereign Hill. Not wanting to fork out more money we chose the 'self guided free' Red Mine Tour. Descending 52 stairs down we were plunged into darkness. Both Katy and Ella kept us close by! The tour was an audio recording tripped by motion sensors with various lighting effects. It was difficult to hear and understand with such a large group. All the girls got the last part - the discovery of the 'Welcome Nugget', a 68kg gold nugget found in 1958. It is the second largest nugget in the world and was sold for £10, 050, sent to London and melted into sovereigns. Today the gold content would be worth more than $4 million!

Out of the mine and the girls headed straight to the creek for more gold panning action! More flecks and specks were added to their jars. Soon it was time to take a seat in the Victoria Theatre to watch a pantomime - Snow White. Girls reactions were mixed and it seemed to go on a little too long.

There was a flurry of random 'old world' activities. We saw the last part of cow milking....joined in a little of the animal talk feeding some very cute goats....finishing with butter churning. All the girls had a go at turning the handle. It took awhile for the cream to separate into butter and buttermilk despite the many different volunteers taking turns! Finally it was time for our exit but not before visiting the sweet shop on the way out!

GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!

Sovereign Hill, marketed as an open air museum that depicts Ballarat in the 1850's after the discovery of gold. Admission fee is a little on the expensive side however we saved some money by leaving Andy back at the house to work and became a family of 5 and a single adult. Also we were informed while paying that we could use our ticket to come back tomorrow if we had it stamped at the post office.

Joined by a few other Sydney orienteers, the 5 girls charged off down the main street wandering in and out of the different old fashioned shops before we herded them towards our first demonstration of the day - gold pouring at the Gold Smelting Works. We were all enthralled watching the glowing golden liquid being poured into a mould, then cooled in water to become a large ingot worth around $150,000.

Leaving this beautiful ingot that was securely locked away in the safe, we now were going backwards through the gold mining process. We made our way through the noisy Battery watching the machinery smash up the gold bearing quartz. On exiting this building, the Poppet Head was an obvious attraction. The girls climbed this 20 metre towers as fast as possible to enjoy the views over Sovereign Hill.

At Hewett's Candle Works we learnt many interesting new facts: how candle makers used the Nodding Donkey to dip their wicks between 150 - 250 times (depending on the size of candle being made and the weather); the racks of candles were hung from the ceilings at night to stop the rats eating them; candles were initially made of tallow (animal fat) and smelt really bad when being burnt; candles that were dipped in green were purchased by the mines and only to be used underground, while the plain white ones were for use at home.

Across the road from the Candle Works we tested our skills at Ninepin bowling before having a break for lunch.

Post lunch with tummies full and energy levels restored, it was time for some serious gold prospecting just what Eoin had been hanging out for all day. Gold was first discovered in Ballarat in 1851 at Poverty Point and once the word got out, thousands swamped the goldfields. Luckily for us, Sovereign Hill 'salt' their creek with $50,000 of gold each year and so you are pretty much guaranteed to find a speck or two!

Eoin with his gang of eager followers were straight into it and once they mastered the correct techniques, gold specks were sparkling away. Cath promptly bought everyone a jar from the adjacent Waterloo Store in which to store their finds! Gold panning was certainly addictive and relaxing and before we knew it 1.5 hours had past!

Reluctant to leave the creek, the girls were enticed away with the sweet making demonstration at Brown's Confectionery Manufactory. We watched humbugs being made. Another interesting education especially 'hooking' where the toffee mixture is pulled over a hook on the wall changing the toffee's colour from clear honey to pearly white before being combined with the black toffee to make the classic humbug stripes. The kids were amazed to learn that sweets were very expensive and thus only for the upper class adults! We all loved the free sample.

From the Sweet Shop we detoured back to Hewett's Candle Works so the girls could dip their own colourful candles. Ella chose a smooth one while Katy opted for the larger bumpy one. Nice way to finish a fun filled day!