Gold, castles and the whipping of the wicked wench

Life in Australia is moving at a rapid pace, and in our efforts to take it all in, we have been neglecting this blog. Our apologies. Today, however we are observing the first day of rain in about a month so we have no excuses. As you can tell by the title we have had an interesting couple of weeks exploring the gold rush history of the area to the east of us, and checking out a few Victorian attractions.

Two weekends ago we also did a bit more exploring around the Grampians, although the hot weather (a few more days in the 40+) had us cowering by the air con for the first bit. A wonderful weather event called the ‘cool change’ occurred which sees the hot west or north wind switch around from the south bringing some South Ocean relief. It’s a bit of tension when it happens because it often brings thunderstorms and in the tinder dry conditions lightning is like a match dropping into a pool of gasoline. This change though was a cool dry change so (knock on wood) no fires developed.

We decided to check out a bit of the appropriately named ‘Wonderland Range’, which is one of the main centerpieces of the Grampians. One of the must do walks is called the Pinnacle which takes you up to the top of the range for some spectacular views. Although it is only a couple of clicks, we decided that we would go partway up and explore, saving the peak for another day. The first part of the trip takes you through an area called the Grand Canyon. Although it is not grand in size, it is picturesque and well worth exploring. To encourage Aiden to participate we can no longer go on a normal walk, we have to go on a pirate adventure, hence the props. Up the metal stairs, and along the ridge we climbed to the cool cavern tucked under a cliff face. All the metal stairs and rails have been redone since the big fire two years ago and it is an impressive track. On the way back down we ran into a pair of young Canadian women who have been working and exploring Australia for close to a year. Aiden poured on the charm for them and seemed quite interested in people with a familiar accent.

Our next weekend we finally headed to Ballarat which has been on Ruth’s hit list for a month or two now. Many locals have recommended visiting Sovereign Hill, a recreated gold rush town with volunteers in roles appropriate to the context of the late 1800's boom that occurred in the area. It was quite well done with underground mine tours, gold panning, recreated tent towns, shops and restaurants with authentic fare, some of which you can actually buy. A highlight was the lolly shop that had candy that was available in the time period. Very tasty. Another interesting part was the pouring of a gold bar worth close to $100000. Ruth and Aiden went on a stagecoach ride and a magician filled the streets of the town with bubbles that had all the kids running around trying to pop them. It is a busy tourist attraction, which normally would have us heading somewhere else, but it is big enough that you can escape to a quieter area and well worth a visit.

After camping we met some friends from Melbourne (Joe, Tina, Joshua & Anthony) at Kryal Castle the next day. We started off by meeting the king, Keith Ryall who decided back in the 60’s that a large blue stone barrier to a local road development would work as material for his life long dream to build a castle and recreate a medieval tourist attraction. Many stones placed later and he’s ended up with an impressive castle complete with moat, drawbridge, towers, maze, stockades, jousting arena, cemetery, wax people torture chamber, and numerous other items on display. His family and staff help add to atmosphere by putting on presentations of juggling, magic shows, sword fights, horsemanship challenges, jousting with shattered lances, and comedic public displays of a hanging and the ever popular whipping of the wicked wench. The whipping was even more hilarious when a member of the audience decided to show how easy it was to use a stock whip with his wife on the post. At the cost of his pride and probably a few choice words from his wife later on, he demonstrated that it isn’t quite as easy as ‘Mr. Whippy’ made it look. Aiden’s favourite bits were the magic show when the lady had parts of her body moved over out of line and the playground with Josh and Anthony. Ruth was a bit smitten by the handsome rogue who did the magic show, and was handily defeated in the sword fight and ended up at the end of the rope at the hanging. Sean was quite taken with the seven chambered box that people were put into with hungry rats at their feet. As the rats got hungrier they would eat their way through into the next chamber working their way up the body. He also thought the horsemanship was impressive.

Well we should get this posted at long last. Thanks to everyone for their comments, questions and ideas. We are working on larger topic blogs relating to the drought; bush fire fighting; the people who have lived in this area for the last 20,000 years; and what Sean’s up to at work;. Hopefully we will have them up sooner than later, and keep the ideas coming. We are missing family, friends and winter, but we are enjoying this adventure more than we expected.