Bob & Debs Caravan Trip

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Day 26 – 18/3/2015



Went for a short drive to Kennington. Small reservoir with a beautiful walking track all the way around & opposite a shopping centre. Tried fishing for a short while with no touches. Water was dead still & not the greatest conditions for fishing. Hopefully will get another chance for a few casts, weather permitting.



Spend the bulk of the rest of the day at Bendigo Hospital, having treatment on a growth on the bottom of my foot. Got some wonderful painkillers so hopefully things will improve quickly.



Went for an evening walk down the road; with those brilliant painkillers I never felt a thing & was able to go quite a distance. Had noisy people on one side of us in the caravan park, so not the greatest night for sleeping.







Day 27 – 19/3/2015



Woke up this morning & was pleased to see Mr & Mrs Noisy leaving. Some people are inconsiderate!



Went to the Central Deborah Gold Mine to do the 11am Underground Adventure Tour. This tour takes us down to Level 3, 85m underground & lasted 2 ½ hours. Our tour guide was Georg, who was brilliant & chock full of knowledge. We learned all about rock formations, explosives & even got to operate a drill which was extremely loud. Thankfully we had ear muffs, something the early miners never had.



Georg told us that 2 housewives washing clothes made Bendigo’s first gold find in 1851. Their only problem was they could not keep their mouths shut & blabbed about it (funny, never knew that about women!). Within 48 hours there were 500 odd people swamped their spot looking for gold. Within 2 months there were over 2600.



After our tour (still within the mine) we had lunch which consisted of specially made Cornish Pasties. One half was filled with apple, the other half a more traditional pastie. There were also some lemon tarts, caramel slices & chocolate slices. It was around 14C in the mine, but when we returned to the surface it was around 34C.



We headed to the gold panning area to try our luck in what is a very painstaking & trying task. You need a lot of patience & a very good eye. I asked one of the workers to show us how it is done & he was very obliging. We found some small bits, but nothing that will make us rich!



We would love to go to the next level when we revisit Bendigo. This tour would take us to Level 9, 228m underground & last 3 ½ hours.



Went to the Bendigo RSL for dinner. $13 for crumbed prawns with either salad & chips, or veggies. The meal was very filling & I have never seen an RSL so jam packed.



I would highly recommend the gold mine & the RSL to anyone visiting Bendigo.

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