A Golden Day

Martyn had decided to take Wednesday off work so he could take me to Ballarat, a historic gold rush town, about 90 mins away in the car. The weather was hot and we set off armed with sun hats and sun block. We arrived at Sovereign Hill around 11.30 am, 90 mins after it had opened. Lady luck was smiling on us because as we parked the car, a couple approached us and asked if we would like their tickets, as they had gone in and were not impressed, so were going home. Well of course we said yes. The full price for admission was $A45 each so I was very happy, having offered to pay for Martyn in thanks for being such good chauffeur. We found plenty of interest, including lovely place for a fish & chips lunch as well as tea and scones in the afternoon!

Parts of Ballarat made think that Scarlett O'Hara should be taking the air on the verandah, and I wondered if Rhett Butler would give a damn if she did. Other parts made me think there would be a show down at noon, but the bar was sporting ads for Newcastle Brown, and that kinda made the image fade.

The whole experience was fascinating. We were able to see examples of both privately owned and company owned underground workings and alluvial sources. They had a tent village and a full town of proper buildings reflecting how the gold rush brought wealth to traders as well as lucky speculators, but until you hit gold, the likelihood was you would be in the tents. A stage coach went up and down the road giving tourist rides, and many were dressed in period costume, giving the whole area a genuine feel.

Ladyluck looked down on me again that day, as when we sat down to lunch (fish and chips in the period restaurant), I realised that I had lost one of my hearing aids. The ear piece was still in situ but the workings had detached and fallen off somewhere. I can mange without my aids, but the NHS don't take kindly to replacing lost ones, so it was an expensive bit of kit to loose. I went to retrace my steps and see if it had been handed in to anyone. No luck in the saloon or the haberdashery and dressmakers, I continued along the path to the ticket office for the underground tours. As the board-walk ran out and the path became gravel, I found it, unharmed. That was a miracle as it was not much bigger than a gravel stone and much the same colour. Had the place been any more crowded I guess, it would have been trodden on. Lesson: check hearing aid is in place every time you put on or remove your sun hat, or any other kind of hat to come to that!

Before leaving to visit the gold museum, we partook of a delightful cream tea in the tearooms. Scrummy!

The gold museum wasn't that interesting, but did have some awesome nuggets (or were they replicas?). Having worked for gold refiners in the late 1970's, I guess I am a bit under awed by lumps of gold that aren't double the size of a housing brick.

And so another great day came to a close as we drove home to relax over dinner and another glass of something red . . . . or was it white?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Hill