The big plan today was to head to Ballarat and the Sovereign Hill "park." As several people told us, Ballarat is where a lot of Victoria actually happened. It was the biggest city during the gold rush period and huge amounts of gold were mined there. Sovereign Hill is a recreated gold rush town and is extremely well done. The whole town seems to be a working town and the little details in the homes and streets to maintain the period authenticity is quite amazing. The technology is quite well hidden and the place has a working foundry, carriage shop, bakery, confectionery, grocers, apothecary, blacksmiths, school, and more.
We drove there at about 10 in the morning and got there at about 11:30. After exploring the "Gold Museum," we entered the town and were instantly transported to 19th century Australia. We tried our hand at gold panning and were initially frustrated in our efforts. Just as we were about to give up and move on, we ran into one of the "settlers" in the town and asked him for some tips. In a loud voice, he offered to do a demonstration. He even promised that there is some gold in every pan if it's done right. He actually explained things quite well and that inspired us to go back to some gold panning. In the very first pan after the demo, both Sheila and I found several flecks of gold, which was real exciting. That motivated us to try again and pretty soon we had to buy a little bottle to store the gold flecks we were finding in our pans. Of course, I'm quite sure we spent ten times more money on the little bottle than on all the tiny gold flecks we found in our pans. Still, it was more exciting to come home with a bottle with our few specks of gold that we panned rather than the bottle filled with gold leaf that anyone can buy at the gift shop there.
We were planning to spend half the day at Sovereign Hill and then hopefully head to Ballarat Wildlife Park. But we were all having so much fun that we ended up spending the entire day there. We did a mine tour, ate at the hotel, watched real gold being refined and poured into an ingot, and even wrote with nibbed pens and an inkwell at the school. It really is a fun place with non-stop hands-on activities and it kept us all entertained. By the time we were kicked out (yes, really, they found us back at the gold panning stream and had to tell us to leave as the park had closed), it was far too late to go anywhere else and we just drove back to Melbourne.
I had set up an appointment to have dinner with Graeme Lemin, a friend of mine from many years ago. We met on an online Beatles-related message board in 1993 or 1994 (yes, this was all pre-WWW) and have remained in infrequent contact since then. I last stayed at his place before the Split Enz concert in 2006, documented
here. After some driving around, we found parking on a great restaurant-filled street and walked down the street looking for a place to eat. The business is very competitive and at the front of each restaurant is someone desperately trying to pull you in. We were accosted by an Italian man who proceeded to tell us why his restaurant is the only one worth eating at and that everyone else was fake Italian. Then, hoping to entice me, he explained that his chef was Indian and had been trained by him. He kept up his patter for a while and insisted that everyone else on the street except for him was a "spruiker." Another lady told us her mom was the chef and that she would give us either 2 drinks each for free or take 25% off our bill. After listening to several such pitches, we settled on the one who offered the free drinks and I enjoyed my Rigatoni Pesto and a James Squire Ale and Pure Blonde. I was almost laughed out of the restaurant (no one was more mocking then Graeme) when I asked for a glass. Apparently, real Australian men drink beer only out of a bottle. Our great evening out lasted until after 11 PM and we went to bed soon after reaching home.
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