Tuesday, 9 January 2007 - Lake Wendouree, Botanical gardens, Black Hill lookout, Mt Buninyong, Bended Elbow
Wednesday, 10 January 2007 - Antiques and Bended Elbow
Thursday, 11 January 2007 - Tangled Maze, Trenton falls, Daylesford, antiques, Woodend, Holgate Brewery
Friday, 12 January 2007 - Hanging Rock, Sanatorium Lake
We waited for the bins to be emptied before we left, leaving Mogwai at home to be picked up later by her minders. We left about 10:30am.
Took the not-freeway and Westgate and managed to hit Kryal Castle by 12:15pm (Google Maps).
The road to Kryal off the Western Freeway is long and straight and ends with the main gate of Kryal clearly visible at the end. As we drove slowly up the road, The Omen (Fantomas cover of) was playing on the stereo. The entrance fee was $20 each which seemed a little steep, but we both expected Kryal to be very small...
Some brilliance was involved in putting the "Costumes Of The World" display first, as it makes the rest of the castle look absolutely fantastic. Rows and rows of glass enclosed paper mache vaguely humanoid figures wearing the clothes of the world. My favourite was definitely the zombie with matching moth...
The accommodation section looked quite nice with a lovely garden. We tried to have a look in some of the rooms but failed. We walked through the maze which appeared have only two choices of direction, one of which made no difference. The lookout was nice but really did feel like it was going to fall down and the windows could have done with a good clean. Leading out from the lookout was a bridge (seen in various Kryal photos) to the top of the building next to it ("Keep & Heraldry"). The top of the second building was in serious disrepair and I heard some say something about a fire.
The graveyard is as punny as it gets. I was certainly impressed with how many graves there were.
The chapel is quite beautiful and devoid of any religious symbols. Weddings are conducted at Kryal and all guests are provided with period costume.
We had some lunch (overpriced hotdogs and some seriously bad chips) and viewed the scale model of the castle which served only to remind us how much cooler the playground used to be. The weapons and ship model museum was a random surprise (more of those to come)...
We went and watched the birds of prey show which the kids loved. Consisted mostly of buzzards smashing eggs with rocks and large birds being cute and getting hugs. Next to the birds was the creepy Itty Bity world which apparently you can hire! Boxes about 1.5 metres wide filled with little dolls which had epileptic fits in time with music played when a button was pushed. Kids delighted in pushing all of the buttons in the room at once. Fun which lasted whole seconds before they were out the door looking to torture some birds.
Thus followed the "Medical Room", a museum of old medical instruments, signs and drugs. May I never see the words "douche", "vaginal" and "penial" used in context so often again. The ye-olde and not so ye-olde midwifery instruments were particularly horrifying.
The Medical Room made the wax torture museum seem like happy fun land. We were beginning to wonder just who this place is aimed at.
We left not long after the mock hanging, which was also very punny. I am told a certain sister in law saw the same act over 20 years ago and was sure they'd killed someone live in front of the audience. They made is fairly obvious no-one was really dead this time. He went around for another go just for fun...
Hit the Ballarat tourist info centre around 4 and grabbed a pile of brochures and then on to the accommodation.
Partly by accident we were staying in one of the two rooms at Suvalki. We were originally booked in at Ballarat City Apartments but were requested to move to Suvalki room as we didn't really need the larger room and a family of 5 did.
The room at Suvalki was absolutely gorgeous and I couldn't recommend it more. Huge ceilings (6 metres at my estimate), antique yet comfortable furniture, spa/shower, kitchenette, TV/VCR/DVD with free DVD library and off street parking. The only thing I had against it was the toilet (in the bathroom) had no door but it was at least behind a wall. $100 a night. The room at Ballarat City Apartments would have been $110 but it had a separate lounge and kitchen with full cooking facilities which we really didn't need. The owners of both Suvalki and B.C.A. live in the back of the Suvalki building but we never saw them. We never heard any more from our neighbours more than arriving and leaving, although we expect there was no-one staying in the other room.
After settling in we went for a walk down Lydiard (where our room was) and up and down Sturt St (the main drag). Lydiard is full of 1800's buildings and looks amazing with the sun coming down. Ballarat train station looked lovely but a little strange sheltering the modern "fast" trains.
We walk west up Sturt St as far as the twin churches on the corner of Sturt and Dawson Street. Lots of second hand book stores, op shops and a few antique shops on Sturt. We plan to return another day when shops are open. The centre reserve in Sturt looks interesting, full of happy looking trees and various statues. I plan to check out some of the statues in the following days but never get a close look. Queen Victoria looked particularly cool from a distance.
We intend to have dinner at The George Hotel but it is all closed except the gaming room (a fact they probably should have advertised out the front instead of providing the menu). Although it was a grand old building, inside it looked more like a nicely done Tatts venue, although I wouldn't want to judge it on it's entrance and gaming room only.
We wander back down Sturt and choose the Thai Fusion Cafe Restaurant and have a banquette which was excellent but service was very slow. We finally got out of there after 10pm.
It's cold and very quiet on the walk back. There is a strong smell of what might have been marijuana smoke but we can't figure out the source, it seems to last for almost two blocks.
Katie received a nice photo of Mogwai at Mogwai's "grand-parents" place, letting us know she was safe and well looked after. I begin to see the point of MMS and photo enabled mobiles. I made us both feel pretty good.
The massive ceiling is strange to look up at from bed. Although cold outside it was a bit warm in the room. Because it was so quiet I heard every noise and every person walking past. Something went "ting" outside every hour or so but I never figured out what it was.
The water in Ballarat tastes very strange, like aeroplane water, and we discover later it has a strange blue tinge to it. Tea and coffee only partly hide the taste.
We drive to Lake Wendouree first thing. The entire lake is empty except for two small places only metres across with a few centimetres of puddle. We stop at Pipers on the lake for breakfast and the first thing we notice as we get out of the car is the smell of bad swamp water.
The bottom of the lake is cracked but still a little damp in places. It is all fairly shocking to see. The people of Ballarat seem to avoid talking about it and still sell photos of the lake full and looking gorgeous.
After breakfast we drive around the lake talking a few photos. We notice a couple of old Fanta cans, 13 fluid ounces, and a few bottles we couldn't make out. I suspect a great many pieces of garbage have ended up in the various antique shops around Ballarat in the past few weeks.
We walk through the Ballarat Botanical Gardens. I loved the red woods but many of the gardens were looking very thirsty. The prime ministers walk is great, displaying busts of current and past prime ministers in a pretty setting. Adam Lindsay Gordon's cottage is a little random, and seems to exist only to sell tourist garbage and arts-and-crafts, although I was extremely tempted by some rather expensive panoramic Terry Kelly panoramic shots of the lake before and after drying ($28 each).
We watch the tourist tram go by then jump in the car and head to Black Hill lookout for some panoramas of the city and eavesdropping on English tourists. We spot Mount Buninyong in the distance and decide to visit after lunch.
Driving back to Sturt street we reject Ballarat Centre Square shopping centre food court and settle for some good old fashion cafe food (chicken schnitzel roll) at the Lydiard Lunch Box Cafe.
We drive to Buninyong via Sovereign Hill and its very very full car park. We get to Buninyong and take a wrong (or non) turn, driving most of the way to Mt Mercer before admitting our mistake. We had the joy of witnessing a cow being chased by a dog and a $1 million bridge being built on an otherwise pretty crappy road.
We drive back, check the map and end up on the No.2 Yendon Road, which was also wrong. Mount Buninyong tortures us by being so close yet so unclimbable and we begin to wonder if you're able to get up it at all. The No.2 Yendon Road ends with a nice "Mt Buninyong this way" sign and we follow it down the No.1 Yendon Road and finally up the mountain.
At the top of Mount Buninyong is an awesome metal tower which serves as both a fire watch and tourist lookout. It's very tall and provides around a 270 degree view of the surrounds (trees kill the rest of the view to the south-east). I'm normally terrified of heights but I managed quite well.
The few was amazing, but to the south-east we could just see a wall of smoke slowly blowing in. The fire-watch guy was having one of those "guess what, what, no way" conversations describing the wall. The small part we could see was pretty impressive. You can see the smoke on the right of the panoramic below.
Also, check out my massive panoramic view from Mount Buninyong lookout that is too wide big to thumbnail without breaking my template. Thanks Autostitch.
Back down the mountain to the "crater walk", a very short 1km walk to the original volcano crater which formed Mount Buninyong. Most impressive to us were the hundreds of dead and dying ferns, and the strange wasteland of grass that was the bottom of the crater. We couldn't find any tourist text on why no trees grew in the bottom of the crater.
While on the walk the smoke blew right in so we decide to drive back to the top and have a look. A huge difference in only around an hour. The awesome view is almost completely blocked out by smoke. I climb the tour and take a few "after" shots and we drive back to Ballarat.
We beat the smoke to Ballarat, relax in the room with some coffee and watch the news. It's going to be 34C tomorrow (or 37C depending which news you believe, WIN or Ch9).
We leave around 6:30 (to notice the smoke has hit Ballarat) to the Bended Elbow (an "English" pub just down the road on Lydiard) to have their Tuesday steak special. Bloody fantastic meal (had with whole peppercorn sauce) with some great beers on tap.
Ballarat Gold Ale is a nice Calton Draught replacement and goes down easily.
Our favourite beer on tap of the night was Grimbergen Dubbel. A Belgian beer served very cold in a wide glass, it's a brown ale with a complex, fairly sweet taste. It's quite strong and we found ourselves pretty tipsy after just one, but it didn't have much of the usual strong alcohol taste of strong (8%) beers. It went very well with the steaks we were eating. Absolutely loved it.
The Bended Elbow itself is all class with excellent decor, friendly and helpful staff and a comfortable (if smoky) beer garden. Their beer list was impressive looking but not impressive in actuality. We decide to come back for lunch or dinner tomorrow if we find nowhere better.
After dinner we walk to Craig's Royal Hotel but it's closed. We walk a bit further to take a photo of Wesley Church then walk back to Sturt and wander into Irish Murphy's pub for a Guinness. Murphey's is much like an Irish pub from a can, only in an authentic building.
Then to Sebastiaan's Coffee Bar on Lydiard for cake and coffee on the way back to the room.
Managed to sleep in until 9:30. Recharge the camera batteries while having a coffee breakfast and watching the weather on TV. It's going to be hot. It's already hot.
Walk up and down Sturt street. Not as much to look at as we thought. Have big breakfast at Delish On Sturt who were very friendly and relaxed ("no chips today it's too hot, if they want chips they can go somewhere else"). The food was reasonable but not as good as yesterday at Pipers.
Have a look in a little Antique place near the North-East of Sturt. Their stuff was all nicely arranged into sections so it was easy to avoid anything you were not interested in.
Dropped into Dick Smith and bought a 2Gb SD card, my 1Gb was almost full. Turns out I probably could have got by.
We grabbed a map of antique places in Ballarat from the Sturt St place and wandered up Curtis St then Mair St East looking for "Burly Babs Collectables and Retro Relics". We were extremely thirsty by the time we arrived so popped into the bottle shop across the road for a drink (of water). Happened across the tourist marker for the "Welcome Nugget" discovery point.
"Burly Babs Collectables and Retro Relics" is run from an old residence (complete with kitchen and "do not enter" toilet) and as such is a maze of rooms all filled to bursting with old toys, magazines, advertising signs and more. We loved is and both bought a few things, including a funky little fly ashtray.
On the opposite corner is the "Antiques Collectable Centre", a two story building with the more traditional antiques (ie. old furniture). It was a little pricey and I didn't find it as interesting, except the little stamp/coin kiosk in the corner and the great view of Ballarat from the second floor. Apparently a broken accordion is still worth $200. Yes, I want to be Weird Al when I grow up.
Walked down to "Decades of Fashion" which held Katie in it's evil grip for over an hour. A small shop filled with old second hand clothing of the kind you can only wear at fancy dress parties. While in there I checked out "Joyce's Junkatique" across the road, which was filled with rubbish you wouldn't even find at Camberwell market, but I found a book celebrating 150 years of Victoria for 50 cents.
"Antique Goods and Chattels" directly across from "Decades..." was great, but the building was terrifying. The floorboards were lose and I felt like the place was moving, although that might have been the heat. Bought a "Victoria The Garden State" photo book in excellent condition filled with 1980's (pre Rialto) photos of Melbourne similar to a Melbourne one I already have but with different photos.
After looking for hours but finding nothing Katie extracted herself from the clothes shop and we walked through the mall to find something to eat. Ended up having a light lunch at a cafe with an import lolly shop attached. Katie discovered Honeycombe Creme cake and boiled musk lollies. I didn't find any interesting Tic Tacs.
Walked from there to the Woodshed Antiques on Camp St but most of his stock was in his van, packed up for the Warrnambool antique fair. He only sold furniture anyway, which is fun to look at but not much fun to drag home. They offered us tea.
Feeling insanely hot we walked back to our room via another rickety antique barn on Lydiard ("Lydiard Furnature and Antiques") who had a nice little black cat. What is it with old antique shops and creepy old men standing around talking? I think at some point in the 50s or so a heap of men retired into antiques and they're still around crowding the market...
The room was still nice and cool (thanks I suspect to the huge ceilings). Watched Antiques Roadshow on TV (our favourite show) and the news. Sovereign Hill was indeed busy, the local news showing some horrifying footage of a street filled with happy children and scared looking horses. We decide not to go.
The news tells us that Melbourne was covered in smoke but we'd seen none since yesterday afternoon.
We head on to the Bended Elbow for dinner again. I have their chicken parma while Katie had pepper squid. Both were nice but not as good as yesterday's steaks.
Bottled beer today. The bar(wo)men serving me was new and had to have the imported beer section pointed out to her on the register because "we almost never sell any".
Katie drank a Warsteiner Premium Verum which she described as "like James Squire only not as bad". It had a similar metallic taste. I attempted to get a Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit but they couldn't find any so I had a Red Stripe, a Jamaican beer that tasted exactly how I expected, very light and easy to drink, good for hot weather. Their website says "BOO Internet. Hooray beer! Everyone knows it. Why not say it?" which I think deserves some points.
While having our dinner the lovely bar staff found me a Forbidden Fruit and while grabbing that I got Katie a Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen which came in a big 500ml bottle. Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit was as I remember it, a very strong alcohol taste (it's 8.5%), an excellent after dinner beer. Katie claimed the Schöfferhofer had a "banana lolly taste" which I couldn't taste myself but it had definite fruity flavour. Some websites describe a "slight banana flavour".
We walked around after that looking for a supermarket (for water) but it was further than we thought so we gave up and went back to the room.
The streets of Ballarat are empty at night.
Dave SMS'd me in the night informing me of the existence of Lemon Mint Tic Tacs. I must have them.
We have a big breakfast (our third bacon and eggs in a row) at Pancake Kitchen (a Pancake Parlour under almost the same name).
We leave Ballarat and drive to Creswick to the Tangled Maze, something we spotted in one of the brochures. The main maze at Tangled is huge, made up of many varieties of plants including some beautiful flowers. The maze includes a card of questions ("who is reading from the book of spells") which if you can answer all of them, you have seen everything. We got a lolly. It was cool and shady in the maze and it had a couple of great little lookouts so we were in there for an hour.
Tangled also has a daisy maze (count the frogs) but it was very dry and sick looking. We played a round of mini-golf and then drove on to Daylesford.
Daylesford was busier than expected. We drove around aimlessly for a bit following lots of terrible signs that pointed one way but forgot to tell you to turn.
Eventually we stop at the information centre but it tells us nothing new. We walk across the road to the "50's Collectables" shop which at first looked like a bad Elvis shrine but in fact had an excellent collection of old magazines upstairs. Katie bought a 1952 Women's Weekly, full of excellent articles on how to keep the leg you have chained to the kitchen from getting chain-burn and advice on how not to "get in trouble" with bad men. I bought some Faith No More postcards and the March 1969 "Worlds of if" science fiction magazine, the "Special Hugo Awards Issue" with a great cover, an advert for buying facial hair on the first page and stories by Philip Jose Farmer, Anne McCaffrey, Ted White, Harlan Ellison, and an editorial by Frederik Pohl and interview with Harlan Ellison. Brilliant.
Up the road from there was another antique shop where I bought a book, "Grand Dreams and Grand Men - The intriguing story of the Manchester Unity Building" (in Melbourne) which I expect to be very interesting as that is a lovely and bizarre building.
We have lunch at the Boathouse Cafe on Lake Daylesford. Expensive but large and excellent meal (and we only had entre) of Penne pasta with rib eye steak pieces and mushrooms.
We walk around the Lake, past the many happy swimmers and dogs, to the local springs. All were empty save for small trickles, and the creek was looking very ill. The water was cool and refreshing, especially pumped into a hot hat and dumped on your head.
We start to look in the Book Barn on the lake but it's too darn hot. We drive to Mill Market Antiques just outside of Daylesford (spotted on the way in), a huge warehouse of antiques, much like a spread out Chapel Street Bazaar. I was a little bored of it all (and everything at the Barn was a bit expensive) so I sat and read while drinking huge amounts of water in their little cafe. They were playing Portishead's Dummy on the stereo fairly loud and the guy vacuuming stopped at a piano and jammed along to Glory Box which was pretty cool.
We drive to Woodend via Trenton Falls which are pretty but frustrating (you can't get anywhere near them). Excellent facilities though (paved drive and huge carpark with a toilet).
We're staying the night at the Holgate Brewhouse, about the only thing in Woodend. I was pretty sure the guy on the phone said the room had a spa but it only had a bath. The room was fine, comfortable with a "village view", but compared to the Ballarat room is was a disappointment, especially as it cost more than 50% more. They at least included breakfast (bread, coffee, cereal, fresh milk, OJ etc.) in the fridge. No TV.
We have dinner at the Holgate's restaurant which was excellent. I have a Beef Dark Ale pie full of huge crumbly pieces of beef, served with a Holgate Mahogany Dark Ale served at room temperature, absolutely perfect.
After dinner we walk up and down the main street, confirming there is indeed nothing in Woodend. A few closed antique shops and the Insectarium.
Head back to the Holgate for their 7 beer tasting paddle. They all tasted great but my favourites were the Mahogany & Malt Dark Ale tasted at dinner, and the "Double Trouble" (8%, I see a theme). The guy next to us had a pint of "Big Red" and seemed to be enjoying it although he was obviously hoping for conversation and that wasn't going to happen. I thought about buying some Mahogany but it didn't seem to come bottled and I wasn't sure I could see myself drinking a lot of it anyway.
Take a short walk to rid ourselves of some of the alcohol but it's too cold so we head back.
Quieter night than Ballarat, but the room had a mini-fridge right near the bed which could have been turned off except it held our breakfast for the next day. The second floor helped keep out some of the truck noise.
We leave a little too early to check out (no-one there yet) so we go for a walk. Decide against the Insectarium. Drop the key back at the hotel at 10 and drive to Hanging Rock.
We walk straight into a conversation with some of the owners talking about the watering requirements of the Hanging Rock racetrack, which looked like a huge circle of bright green against the brown background of dead grass. They were questioning some of the published watering volumes needed.
We have a quick look through the visitors centre which looks like it would be a huge joy for kids. Lots of kid height viewing and even a secret tunnel from one section to another.
The walk up to the summit is very steep but not too difficult and quite short. Some awesome views, especially with the crazy rocks in the foreground. Fair bit of rubbish around unfortunately. Didn't see any snakes or lizards but saw what was probably a wallaby (it looked black from the distance) high up on the hill.
We took the stairs on the way down and say "the" hanging rock and many other excellent rock formations. The stairs are where much of the beauty is at so I'm glad we took them on the way down (we were thinking of skipping them).
Had lunch at the Hanging Rock cafe which was excellent. A crusty roll full of sweet chilli lime chicken and salad.
Drove aimlessly for a while, vaguely following Mt Macedon signs. Happened upon a sign to Sanatorium Lake so we drive up 1.5km of unsealed road and following the walking signs.
We disturb an echidna on the walk down. He runs into a bush and buries his head in the ground, exposing his spikes to us but otherwise doesn't move. We leave him alone after a quick photo.
Sanatorium Lake is a little oasis in the try forest. It's very deep, a little dirty, but otherwise very pleasant. It would be a fantastic place for a picnic. It used to be the water supply for the tuberculosis sanatorium but is now kept around for the sake of wildlife. We follow the path around it and back up to the car.
A policeman stops us for a random licence check on a very quiet country road on the way home. We jump on the Calder Highway and head home.
I get off the freeway early and drive through Keilor Heights, astounded by the massive massive houses all in a row along the river. Drive through Brunswick then get on the Eastern and head home.
We pick up the puppy who is very happy to see us.
Lots of photos to go through and panoramas to create.
Had a great time.