Issue 7 N0V 2017
Brodie’s next 15,000 klm
On th e road again
Wimmera River Horsham
Horsham to Ballarat Another Macca’s for breakfast and then on the road again. Ballarat was only a couple of hours away as the crow flies but being grey nomads we wanted to take the road less travelled so we joined the rest of the tourists on the scenic roads. First stop was the town of Stawell, where each Easter the “Stawell Gift” is run, this started as 100 yard sprint in 1878 and has continued and gained in prestige and prize money ever since. Over the years the “record “ for fastest has had some controversy due to metrification and disputes on how the course was actually measured but it is still a popular event. We had a wander around the town and admired the old colonial buildings and different style of shops. The big shopping centres hadn’t made it here so the town had a unique individual style that is rapidly disappearing as the retail giants clothe us all the same. Leaving Stawell it was left to Ballarat by freeway or right via Halls Gap and the Grampians, (one of the mountain ranges). We went right, at an earlier caravan park we were told how nice Halls Gap was ... and it was. Halls Gap is a small village established in a pass through the Grampians, (hence the Gap as part of the name) and has developed as the gateway to the walks and rides in the Grampians. We stopped there for lunch and place had a real holiday feel with lots of people and accommodation places.
It had such a great buzz that Jan ummmmed and ahhhhed for about 30ks on whether we would stay the night and then decided we were too far away, she sometimes has trouble making her mind up, a bit further along as we were crossing the range we came across a scenic view point, I suggested we stop but by the time she had made her mind up we were well past it so that’s one photo you won’t get to see. Arriving in Ballarat at peak hour, and it is a big place, we came to realisation that we prefer the little country villages than the sameness of the cities, but there are things on the bucket list here so we have booked 2 nights in a nice park, although once again this park like most of the “city” parks is full of workers rather than holiday makers.
Sovereign Hill is a recreation of the Ballarat Gold ďŹ elds between 1850 and 1860, w time. We spent over 5 hours here wandering up and down the hill watching the va
We were really suprised to ďŹ nd we were worn out before the our attention spans ra quick look but were too tired to do it justice, although the huge life size nuggets w
with the use of volunteers and paid sta they try to give a realistic sense o the arious displays and found it really enjoyable.
an out...almost a ďŹ rst!. The Gold museum was just across the road and we had a were well worth seeing and you could understand men getting gold fever.
Through Daylesford to Seymour First things first we went for a walk around the CBD of Ballarat WOW The main street is 3 lanes in each direction with a big nature ship in the middle, you almost need a packed lunch to cross the road. The street was bordered by big old impressive colonial buildings. The gold rush had made this a very rich city in its time, although now the regional blight of empty shops was also in this town. Driving around the suburbs you could see a mixture of little miners shacks, grand colonial mansions and of course your typical brick 3 bedroom. All in all a lovely place, for a city, to visit When I looked on google maps at the route it had chosen to Seymour I could see it was all freeways with little to see, so I decided we would go through Daylesford. This route took us up through the Macedon Ranges and like the Adelaide Hills was full of quaint little villages and vineyards all trying to capitalise on their closeness to Melbourne. Daylesford had certainly managed this, the area around it is full of mineral spas and the town is mainly coffee shops and art/giftware shops. Jan enjoyed wandering in and out of these looking at stuff that was way too expensive to me and some of it just wouldn’t have looked right in the motor home. Puckapunyal is just outside Seymour so it was a left turn straight after the sign ...... only to be met with a chain link fence straight across the road, not a good start for reminisces . After having a chat with the Seymour Tourist Office we were told that due to changing threat levels access to Puckapunyal was restricted only to the tank museum and only during the week ... it was Saturday and it wasn’t the museum I wanted to see. Drove past one caravan park, it looked like a dumping ground for pre 1970 vans and checked into a neat little park across the road from a business proclaiming “the worlds best burgers” a few hours later we found the claim was pretty true.
No Puckapunyal for Keith
Lake Eildon and a few randons from The drive from Seymour to MansďŹ eld was quite pretty but very busy as Melbournites used the area for their Sunday drives. There were motorcyle packs, vintage cars and probably every jetski in the world heading towards Lake Eildon. Then we came across the Targa Highland Rally also at Lake Eildon another heap of photos . After satisfying my motoring lust we headed o to Christine and Pauls place (fellow travellers we had met at Longreach, they made us very welcome and it was well after 11pm by the time we got bed.
m villages on the way
Targa Highla Eildo
ands Rally on
This is the lovely property of Christine an We met then at a park in Longreach and they very
nd Paul, just outside MansďŹ eld Vic kindly ask us to stay for a couple of nights
The view from C The filmset from Man F Christine and Paul drove us up a very windy road near Mt Buller to get to this hut that was built in the style of the high country cattlemen huts for the movie “Man from Snowy Riverâ€?. When we ďŹ rst arrived we were alone but within an hour there were about 20 horses and their riders, it is a regular destination for trail rides and most galloped along the fence line trying to emulate the scene from the movie
Craigs Hut From Snowy River
Paul Christine
Mansfield to Lakes Entrance
Christine and Paul had to head to Melbourne early so we were up and ready to head o as well. We decided to have a look at Ned Kelly country, ďŹ rst stop was Benalla, well it was actually for breakfast at Maccas, but we still had a look at the murals that had been painted on a lot of the buildings. Glenrowan was a bit further up the road and of course it is where Ned Kelly made his last stand. Very little of the time actually still exists, as you would expect, but the town had been taken over by museums and purveyors of memorabilia. I paid my $9 and visited Kates Cottage museum, I must admit it was Photo of the actual one of the better armour modelled by one of the police ones I had been in. at the time A quick drive around town to visit the actual main sites and read the history boards at each one and then we were heading towards the Great Alpine way.
The Great Alpine Way The Great Alpine Way started at Wangaratta through to Bainsdale, without snow it would be a boy’ racer’s dream, a really twisty road that climbes over a mile as it winds its way over the Great Dividing Range, unfortunately Jan is not a boy racer passenger and the constant mantra of SLOWDOWN!!, WATCHOUT! BE CAREFUL! never stopped as we climbed the mountain sometimes getting up to 40klm per hour.... but the view was worth it. Jan actually drove as far as Bright, one of the many pretty Alpine towns, until we decide to drive up to Huggins Lookout. This was up a twisty, wet, narrow rough gravel road, once the motorhome slipped a bit she gave me the wheel but still drove from the passengers seat, which was practice for the trip up to Mt Hotham. Once we got to the lookout it was only a 15 point turn next to the cliff edge to turn the motorhome around .... Jan decided to stand outside while I turned it around. The view over Bright was certainly worth it.
Some of the Great Alpine
e Way .... high enough for snow
And this is what we were greeted wit LAKES EN
at the end of The Great Alpine Way NTRANCE!