Ararat to Geelong

Hi All

We had a change of heart and stayed at Green Hill Lake free camp near Ararat instead of Halls Gap, we did day trips to Stawell, Dadwells Bridge where the big Koala lives, then we got on the dirt roads and went to Roses Gap, Halls Gap, Mt William and Jimmy's creek camp ground and then head back through Moyston.

There are lots of great views overlooking the Grampians along these roads we also picked up some wood for the fire pit back at camp, because we where going to cook a damper for the first time and have a few drinks with the nice people we have met up with in the camp.

We are now in Hamilton and today we took a drive to the falls Wannon Falls and Nigretta Falls and both had water flowing over the falls,

we also stopped at Coleraine where they have an old Train Station that now house's the Information Centre and some old pictures and notes from the past.

We have been to the Ansett Museum in Hamilton as this is were Reginald Ansett was born and grew up, he started offering to take passengers from Hamilton to Ballarat in his Studebaker, by 1935 he had a fleet of vehicles travelling to Melbourne, Mount Gambier, Naracoorte and Warnambool then a year later the first Ansett flight took to the skies a must see if you are in Hamilton Victoria.

We stayed at Meredith free camp just east of Colac for a night and it blew a gale, we then moved onto Geelong and had another look round town and I did a bit fishing with no luck again! I then took my metal detector to the Eastern beach but also no luck only found tent pegs and bottle tops will try again some other morning that all for now.

We are flying up to Townsville for Christmas on Thursday 19 Dec so I will restart blog in New Year

So we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for both of us. 

 View from Lake to Caravan 

 View from Caravan to Lake 

 Big Koala just past turn off to Halls Gap

 Lee overlooking the Lake in the Grampians  

 More views of the Grampians 

 Our first try at making Damper

 What a good job we did 

 Nigretta Falls 

  Wannon Fall 

 Sir Reginald Ansett early mobil phone place in his Studebaker

 His Studebaker

 Hamilton Botanic Gardens

 Some type of Pine Tree in the Gardens  

In and around Maryborough Victoria

Hi All

We spent 4 nights at the Laanecoorie not free camp, but only $5 Pn which we call free, I when out with my metal detector looking for gold but only found old nails and bit of rusty tin but it was good to have a look. When I got back to the caravan park we met up with Ron and Marie, Ron invited me to go out looking for gold nuggets the next day, which I jump at so I could learn more about detecting.

We started off at 0630 and only went 4km for camp and started detecting Ron showed me what to look for around in the area's where gold might be located, by pointing out the kind of ground and trees around the area. Ron found a couple of small nuggets and called me over to try my detector over a spot which he thought may have a nugget, I started to try and find it with my detector but had no hope as the ground had lots of iron stone and was just to noisy so he told me to sort thought some of the soil with my hands and pass it over his detector to find the item that was making all the noise and I found a small nugget in some clay which Ron call it a Kinder Surprise, I think I have got the fever and may have to look for a real Gold detector.

We were to stop at Avoca, but when we pulled up in Maryborough we thought we would stay a week and make day runs form here, Maryborough has lots of history and there are lots of small towns and villages around the area.

We had to do some washing and as we have not got a generater on this trip we had to stop over in the caravan park which is right next to the lake and we can walk to Town.

We have driven around the area and have seen Castlemain, Maldon, Avoca, Ballarat, Beaufort and all villages between these towns.
We move on to Halls Gap on Friday morning for 3 or 4 nights and will have a look at the local town around the area. 

 Bush-ranger Captain Melville Cave in Kooyoora State Park

 The nugget I unearthed just a little small that the one below

 A few wineries around the area

 This nugget found near Maryborough

Lee outside a small house in Inglwood