Wednesday 5th March 2014

We found some breakfast in town before hitting the road to Port Fairy. It was a short drive to the cute seaside town. We walked along the river before heading into town. I looked in the brochure and saw a cafe and icecreamry call Rebecca's! I was sold! We had a nice coffee and a piece of cake before hitting the road again.

We headed to Ballarat and we decided to take the route via Halls Gap in the Grampians. It was an amazing scenic route through the Grampians mountain ranges. I enjoyed sitting in the passenger seat taking pictures and I think Stu enjoyed the drive. We stopped off at Halls Gap for some lunch and had pie! Yummy!!!!! Halls Gap is a cute little town in the mountain valley!

We watched a couple get swamped by cockatiels when they were eating food on the picnic table! One was brave enough to jump on their shoulder! Cheeky birds!

I decided to do the next lot of driving the Ballarat, it was a bloody long way though! There was a lot of farm land around with cattle. I even saw camels!! We went through Ararat AKA the fattest time in Australia. The biggest loser was trying to help out the town earlier this year. We didn't see any though or the biggest loser trainers!

We finally arrived in Ballarat after a long drive! We hit rush hour traffic and took us a while to arrive to our hotel. Our room was pretty big again, I have been very impressed with the Best Western hotels!

We had a short drive into town and found somewhere for some dinner down Lydiard street. It still has all of its original buildings from the gold rush days, and it is a popular for film sets. I felt like I had gone back in time, despite the cars parked everywhere! Ballarat is the third most populous urban area in Victoria and its the state's most populated inland settlement and the fifth most populated inland settlement in Australia. Gold was was discovered at poverty point in August 1851 news quickly spread where gold could easily be extracted. Within months approximately 20,000 migrants rushed to the area.

Thursday 6th March 2014

We got up and had a short stroll to town to grab some breakfast before heading out to Sovereign Hill.

Sovereign Hill is an open museum which shows Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Victoria. The museum comprises several historically buildings that have been recreated buildings, costumed staff and volunteers using old photos and accountants back from the gold rush.

There was several activities to get involved with, we did a bit of gold panning, we found a few small pieces of gold. Nothing big enough to retire on! We went on a tour down one of the mines. We got in a big carriage and got driven down the mine shaft. There was no lights and I was sat next to a complete stranger. I was tempted to hold onto the guy next to me but I don't think he would have appreciated it!

We weren't down too far, but there are loads of mines deeper than us. Due to the fact the mines went down below the water table there was pumps that pumped the water so the miners didn't drown! Scary!

They showed us the lift the miners went down, five at a time, in a small cage. Better than climbing the ladder which would take an hour from the lowest point! No thank you!

We were showed different mining techniques and how to find gold by following the quartz! They also told us the type of miners there were, some worked for a company, where they would get paid a salary but they wouldn't get a share of the gold they found or they could go privately. Where they would take the profit of the gold, but they would have to dig their own 'mines'.

We then jumped on a small train to take us to the exit and back up in the cattle cart, in the dark again. This time I was sat next to Stu!

We had a wonder around the town looking at the candle making factory, the sweet shop, black smiths and nine-pin bowling. We had a good old game playing! Very different from the modern ten pin bowling!

We went down another mine, which was self guided. I didn't enjoy it too much as it was a little scary! There was 'actors voices' telling us the story of the discovery of the welcome nugget. The welcome nugget weighed 69 kg and was discovered by 22 cornish miners at the red hill miners. It was located in the roof of a tunnel 55 metres underground it still remains the second largest gold nugget ever found, it was sold for £10,500!

We spent most of the day looking around and it was a great day. We had a drive off to the lake in the city and had some cake and a coffee. The lake was the location for the rowing in the olympics.

We headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner, we had a stroll into town for some dinner before heading back to the hotel and try to pack up the bomb that has hit the room!

KM's driven: 326KM

Total KM's driven: 673KM