Rosa was going out for the day today so we decided to spend the day in town, visiting some of Beechworth's attractions. The town is famous for being the home of Ned Kelly, a bushranger who turned bad but has ended up as a folk hero to many people. He spent a lot of time in Beechworth before going on trial at the courthouse in town for the murder of three policemen at nearby Springybark Creek. He was eventually hung for the murders aged 25 at Melbourne Gaol.

Anyway, we got to the information centre and purchased our 'golden tickets' which got us into a few of the attractions for $15 - good value! The woman accepted our YHA cards ('That'll do for me!) so we got in at concession prices. We looked in a few buildings in the historic precinct - one with displays on the rural fire brigade and how they've dealt with bush fires over the years and the telegraph house where the early telegrams were received. The highlight of the morning was looking around the courthouse, which has been restored to match its original state. We saw the dock that Ned Kelly was in while he was on trial and the cell he spent the night in. There were sound effects in all of the rooms, such as people giving witness statements and even the ghost 'voices' of Ned and other prisoners in the cells - quite creepy at times!

Later in the day, we did the Ned Kelly walking tour around the town and were shown the places where significant events in the Kelly story took place. Our guide was a bit of a Ned fanatic and even had the massive beard! Apparently he's appeared as Ned in a few documentaries but we don't think he'd make it in the movies - he definitely doesn't pass for twenty-five (Ned's age when he was hung) and his Irish accent was terrible! He knew his stuff though, advising us not to watch the Heath Ledger film about Kelly as there are forty huge mistakes in it. So there you go…

We were a bit tired after walking around all day so we headed to Beechworth's famous bakery for a Ned Kelly pie…only to find they'd sold out (everyone really is Kelly mad around here!) so we had settle for a boring beef pie, tut!

Back at Rosa's, Bob kindly made us some discs with all of our photos on, so we now have an extra back-up copy. Rosa's daughter Sally, who was also on the GT trip, was driving through on her way back home to Shepparton so she stopped in for half an hour with her boyfriend Sam to say hello. It was really nice to see her again and good of her to come as it was very late and she had to get up early for work the next morning! These Aussies are a friendly bunch… J