Blogs from Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 2

After a farewell from Tasmania, we sailed from Devonport on March 31, and again experienced a smooth sailing as we headed north. At 5:45am, we were awoken as the Captain brought us up to date with our arrival time and disembarkation instructions for Adelaide. A mistake, slip of the tongue maybe? Well, Adelaide was mentioned several times in the instructions leaving passengers scratching their heads and forcing open their bleary eyes. At the end of the announcement he gave the current time and date, 5:45 on 1 April 2014. So we disembarked at Melbourne despite the earlier announcement and found our way back across the city (in the dark) to our camp ground. We had 3 nights in Melbourne, but with the weather pretty average, we had a quiet time visiting the Botanical Gardens, Harbour Town ... read more

Did "Blood on the Southern Cross" last night. It was very well put together, starting off in the auditorium with some background before moving outside the 2nd Act (unfortunately it rained during this bit!) and then we were moved in sort of trains called people carriers to another area for the 3rd Act which included a spectacular hotel fire and a pitched battle between Government (British in the 1850's) and the miners (or diggers) over licences for mining. Not surprisingly, a drunken Scotsman called James Scobie started it all! Very interesting evening which end with a power cut and the audience being led out by torchlight! Went for a run this morning around Lake Wendouree in the centre of Ballarat......took me 11 mins to get to the lake.........28 mins to run round it and.........33 mins to ... read more

At Rae's school friend Helen' place in Ballarat now.........starting with Monday's blog. After filling up with petrol (!).......Left Port Fairy and set off on the true Ocean Road..........stopped off at various "lookouts": Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto, Gorge of Loch Ard, the Apostles ( there are less than 12 now). Breakfasted in Port Campbell and then headed for Apollo Bay. The last 30 odd miles were on very windy, up and down roads..........but was driving and I nodded off! Found our accommodation in Beacon Point..........named Ocean View. I expected to be by the sea - wrong. We were up in the hills..........and the vista from the balcony was spectacular.........after we negotiated the single track, 1 in 6 gradient to get there. Sorted ourselves out and went down into Apollo Bay, a quaint seaside ... read more

This is really a catchup on what we have been seeing. We had been seeing grey dull sort of colors interspersed with views of the ocean and beautiful bays. all of a sudden, south of Sydney, there appeared these rolling hills of green. Just beautiful! This was definitely horse country. We have discovered that Australians are great gamblers and the horses are one of their loves. It would be wonderful to ride across those green hills. We did visit Canberra and the Houses of Parliament. The architecture of the city and the buildings is something to behold. If only more cities could have that architectural planning. The streets are wide with boulevards lined with trees and it really is a fairly easy city to drive in (mind you, we did have Queenie!). We then arrived in ... read more

We have finally found an advantage of getting old; we can travel on Victoria's public transport for an entire day for $3.60. Trains, buses, the whole lot. Valentines day, found us on the bus from Creswick to Ballarat, then on another bus, out to the Eureka Centre, the birth of Australian Democracy. This is so new, that unfortunately, it isn't open yet, a little gem that the tourist people forgot to mention. The Director arrived as we were sitting on their front step, but even though he was very nice, still wouldn't let us in. We did take a few photos of the actual stockade site and memorial, then waited in the hot sun for a return bus. The elderly serbian man at the bus stop was very nice, except his command of English, is as ... read more