Grant and Rae's Oz Trip Feb/Mar 2014

---

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 get back as I took a wrong turning!

Rae and I then went back to Sovereign Hill for the second time and explored more of the mining town..........still didn't manage to find any gold lying about! Had a great pie out of the Hope Bakery, though. Before we left, we went over to the Gold Museum which had some interesting artefacts in it.

Funny story..........I know that I promised not to mention cricket (too often)........Rae wrote some postcards today and bought some stamps, which happen to be dedicated to the Aussie cricket team's Ashes victory - we don't reckon that the postcards will have any chance of getting delivered to English addresses!

This afternoon I went for a walk around the city centre and Helen took Rae to the school where she works (Helen is the longest serving teacher - has just got her 35 year watch - and then to Lake Wendouree.......and then for a coffee. Fortunately they didn't get lost.

Will be packing up tonight, ready to go to Melbourne tomorrow.

---