Ballarat Visit Part 1

 Headed down to Melbourne in September and caught the bus out to Ballarat where I caught up with my friend Kerrie Robertson. Kerrie and I have know each over 40 years- we met at Teachers College. We were meeting up in Ballarat- I have been through Ballarat a number of times over the years but cannot remember staying there. It was fun exploring the area- the weather wasn't great- Ballarat is known for being cold- it lived up to it's reputation, fortunately the weather didn't stop us from exploring.

Ballarat has some beautiful houses with lots of wrought iron

We had a morning walk around Lake Wendouree

Ballarat had some lovely old buildings including St Pauls Cathedral

The Mechanics Building was lovely, at one stage when the rain came I retreated to the Mechanics Library to wait out the shower in front of a computer generated fire place

Ballarat was the centre of the Victorian Gold Rush, a number of large gold nuggets were found around Ballarat including the Welcome Stranger weighing nearly 69kgs

What they believe to be the remains of the original Eureka Flag, located in the Eureka Centre Museum, set on the site of the Rebellion in 1854 by the gold miners. Lovely grounds and monuments.

Day 2 took us out to Buninyong, we first went for a walk around Mt Buninyong

Lovely views and lovely and green

We went for a walk through the Union Jack Reserve, we needed to stick to the path to avoid falling into old mine shafts. 

Checked out the Buninyong Botanical Gardens

Of to the Lal Lal Falls

We then did a tour of the Ballarat Town Hall

Afternoon tea was a very delicious Timboon Ice-cream- Turkish Delight and Cardamom and Orange- very hard to choose!

Rutherglen

 It was lovely to be at Amberesque, we went for a morning walk around Lake King before sitting down to enjoy a beautiful Amberesque breakfast. 

We loved the new silo art in Rutherglen, it is called Birds of Seasons". It depicts how the birds and fauna heralded the beginning of each new season for the First Nation peoples. This one is the Eastern Spinebill Honeyeater.

The left to right are the Red Capped Robin with Billy Buttons; Yellow Tufted Honeyeater with Red River Gum; and Pink Robin with Flannel Flowers.

This was our yummy breakfast with a Filipino flavour. The girls had the noodles, I had the chocolate rice pudding- it was a yummy breakfast, we didn't need lunch till 4pm!

After breakfast we went for a drive over to Milawa, first calling in at Milawa Mustard

Then onto Milawa Cheese Company for a cheese tasting!

Then into the Milawa Kitchen which had yummy bread and baked goods for sale.

Then it was back to Amberesque for our Mosaic Class with Amber. We had great fun and enjoyed being creative 

Very hard at work as you can see from our concentration

Kerrie's work in progress

Our finished products

The next morning we went for another walk, there are lovely buildings around Rutherglen

Up to the old Convent

Up to the water tower that looks like a wine bottle

Nice view from the only hill in Rutherglen

After another delicious Amberesque breakfast, we packed up, loaded up the car, then headed down to the Visitors Centre and tried some of the Billings cordial range, now Isabella cordials.

Then it was time to hit the road and head back to Canberra. The countryside was lovely and green and the canola fields were in bloom

Clouds and rain ahead in Canberra

Stopped for lunch at the Long Track Pantry for our final meal together on the road. It was another great Tuesday Girl adventure!

Junee to Rutherglen

 We left Junee in the morning and meandered our way to Rutherglen. We were lucky it rained over night but by the time we were ready to leave the rain had stopped and the roads had dried up. We were heading to Lockhart, could see The Rock in the distance, everything else was pretty flat.

Lockhart was a delightful town with some beautiful silo art and sculptures scattered throughout the town.

The streets where wide and wide verandas as well.

The weather had turned cold though so we needed to rug up.

Then we headed to Corowa, past more canola fields

 

We went to the Corowa Whiskey and Chocolate Factory, owned and run by the same family that owns the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory

 Kerrie wanted to do a whiskey tasting 

Then we headed to Rutherglen about 15 minutes away

We called into Parker Pies for a late lunch- they were very delicious

We were staying at Amberesque- Deb had been before, and Amy and I had been a number of times, Deb and I were excited for Kerrie to have the Amberesque experience.

Our bedrooms  were delightful

We saved our welcome cheese platter for dinner and enjoyed it down in the lounge room in front of the fire- a perfect way to spend our evening. Lovely having the place to ourselves.