First day to explore Trentham, & Janine had arranged a keen walking friend of hers to take the us on a nice 2 hr walk in a nearby area called Blackwood. The'4 of us plus small dog called Heidi, set off in reasonable sunshine & soon warmed up after the cool morning. This forest was an old mining area & has an abundance of old shafts, some very deep, so it pays to stay on the track to be safe. It took us a bit longer than expected, as Janine & I are both 'mad' photographers & found lots of interesting fungi & flowering Heather bushes. It's nice to be with someone who takes as many shots as I do - you can imagine Stu's comments! Returned home for lunch & as it was such a lovely sunny day, Janine suggested we drive to an area called 'Hanging Rock' about 15mins away. It is an amazing area of interesting huge rock formations (again) which is a long-extinct volcano formed when lava blew a vent through the earth about 6 million years ago & it now rises 105 metres on the surrounding plain. In the past it was a perfect hiding place for bushrangers, including the famous Kelly Gang. It is also well known because of a movie made there about 30yrs ago called 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'. It's purely fictional & quite a mystery, so we are keen to find a DVD now. They had them at the Visitor's Centre for $25 but we thought that was a bit steep! The climb to the summit was quite steep but the track was good & the views over the surrounding valleys & distant Great Dividing Range were great. Even Stu took his camera for a change. After such a long & energetic day we opted to treat ourselves to dinner at a little local restaurant, really cosy with it's big open fire. There is a most interesting tale to be told here involving this fireplace....... The present owners have of recent times purchased the very old building, once a residence. A local resident told them one day that there were two ghosts there, which they accepted tongue in cheek. However every day when cleaning out the ashes of the fireplace, the wife began to find strange little bits & pieces of hard black stuff & couldn't understand what they could be as they only burnt wood. At this time they were struggling financially & one night the husband made a plea to the 'ghosts' to help them. Nothing happened until one day when once again clearing the ash from the fireplace the wife found a large black 'rock' & by now curious as to where it was coming from, decided to clean the black off it & behold! GOLD. On closer inspection they realised it wasn't a gold nugget as first thought, but a mix of gold jewellery which had been placed in the chimney for safekeeping and had slowly melted - question being, how long ago? Anyway they just placed it on the mantel above the fireplace in the restaurant, & gradually of course the story spread around the district, naturally embellished along the way. Next thing they knew they had radio & TV interviewers banging on the door & got paid $1000 for the story. A few people in the district decided the story was a hoax, & eventually the owners got sick of that, so said they had thrown the 'gold' into the lake. In actual fact she is going to have rings made for her & her husband & will keep the rest as it is - just shows what strange things can happen.Stu is suffering from a dreaded malady - it's called 'handymans' disease' & manifests itself when the said handyman hasn't had a tool in his hand for awhile & can't recall when he last did some work! So today he has set himself the task of chainsawing a supply of wood for Janine's fire & fitting some locks on her French doors. After that there's the car & caravan to be cleaned, & the roof-rack on the Landcruiser to be taken off & repainted. Overalls donned, he was happy as a pig in mud, so we left him to it & headed off to a nearby town called Kyneton where Janine had to stock up with ingredients for her market stall for Saturdays local market. While there we visited Kynetons local market & inspected the other interesting shops as well. Kyneton is a lot bigger than little Trentham, has lots of antiques, galleries, cafes etc. We also drove to a little river park where we indulged ourselves in some more photography, before heading off to one of the local mineral springs to fill a bottle with water. It's a slightly mineral taste but it's supposed to be good for you so I have been trying to drink a little each morning. Stu won't have a bar of it - surprise, surprise!
Have done a bit of fossiking around Trentham, checking out the old buildings & shops many of which are only open on weekends & public holidays. There are 2 pubs, both very old. One of them, The Cosmopolitan, has had a fire in recent years & a young couple have purchased it with a view to restoring it, & to get the ball rolling have restored the old stables building at the back into a restaurant but the cooking is done in a mobile food cart. It's quite ingenious really, as it is set in beautiful old gardens & the stable is gorgeous, cosy & has the most beautiful old beams etc. And on a nice day you can eat or have coffee in the garden. All credit to them, I hope they manage to complete the task sometime in the future, although it is a massive old building. There are several restaurants/cafes including Miss Marples Tearooms. Most of them have lots of antique type bits & pieces, but outside one restaurant/tavern is a large pig on his hind legs drinking a glass of beer through a straw. There is also a little ute parked on the road with another pig on hind legs leaning on the cab plus a cattle dog as company. Next to that is a little alleyway, & when we were walking past we noticed a huge giraffe peering over the fence, so curiousity go the best of us, & on inspection we found a whole yard full of these huge animals. Although giraffes are my favourite, it was obvious it was a little large to take along with us, so that saved us about $1600. At the lovely vintage railway station there is a market every 2nd Sunday, & because we were there over Easter, there was an art exhibition & several music venues. So for a very small place, it is very busy when all the Melbournites come up for the weekends & public holidays. The streets are lined with lovely autumn trees & it really is a delightful little village - I think I could live in it although it's a bit cold being about 750mtrs above sea level. There are untold places to visit, especially walks etc. Janine had an photographic entry in the local art show so being interested in that sort of thing, we had to inspect the local talent. I think our Ruawai Art Group would have competed very well.
On Easter Saturday we attended the local market, then drove to a nearby town called Daylesford where a very large market was in progress. Then we explored a little more & had a picnic lunch by Jubilee Lake which was very pleasant. We walked around the lake & took photos of course - the wooded area was so english with it's big autumn trees & the ground littered with leaves. In fact all this area is quite english with it's sometimes narrow treelined roads.
Stu & I decided next day it was time we got on our bikes again, so in the morning road out to a local waterfall. Unfortunately we timed it badly as it was alive with people being a holiday weekend. However we walked down a narrow little track to the base of the falls, & struggled up again. That same afternoon we
ventured down a 'rail trail' from the rail station. It isn't actually formed properly yet, but does mostly follow the old railway lines through a very nice eucalypt forest. The small first section still had the sleepers laid, so it was like riding over corrugated iron - very bumpy! However we soon got onto a better track, lots of fun with it's ups & downs & obstacles. Originally there were lots of little signs to follow, and it was to have lead to an old railway tunnel. Somehow the signs disappeared & there were so many little tracks that we got a bit lost & we resorted to trying to ride down the railway line again thinking that logically it must eventually come to the tunnel. It all got too hard in the finish, so we had to give up before it got too late & we got too exhausted to get back. An enjoyable little adventure just the same.
With the weather improving & the days getting even warmer & sunnier, our next trip was to Mt Macedon, part of the Great Dividing Range. It was a lovely drive through a beautiful mountain residential area lined with gorgeous autumn trees & some stunning gardens which were having an open day. I was the driver today as Stu was feeling off colour, so I passed them with reluctance thinking we would do so on the return journey. Mt Macedon was aslo wall to wall with people, but the views were lovely though a little misty. There is a massive memorial cross on the top which of course being the day after Anzac Day was amass with wreaths & flowers. What a place to have a dawn service, especially if there was a nice sunrise. Fortunately there were lots of picnic areas, so we partook of our homemade food - all except Stu who had taken a turn for the worse & remained in the car, feeling very nauseous & giddy. Because of that the return drive was very gentle & no stops, & he headed for bed on arrival back at the caravan. Fortunately after a good sleep he recovered - a bit of a mystery what the problem was.
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