We then moved back to Sovereign Hill. First stop was a mine took. A let down after our Bedigo mine tour last year but interesting all the same. We were able to catch up with 'Gus the Steam Room Cat'. The girls were disappointed as he wasn't there when we first arrived but when the visited again after our mine tour he wa in place. Then we realized he was obviously between early morning and mid morning naps. We then saw a gold bullion being poured and learnt all about in and outs, temperatures, and basic refinement process. Also other interesting facts about gold in its moulton/semi moulton state. Hopefully you will find the (if it attaches) as interesting as we found the demonstration. We moved into gift shop to have a look and was chatting to the guy giving the demonstration. We ended up returning to the workshop for a private viewing and handling of the gold bar. Which we were assures was real but have been melting the same bar for eighteen years. Did I mention in today's market it was worth approximately $130 000. After this we had a wander around the park. Taking in the shops, displays, reenactments, gold panners, horses and coaches and general ambiance of workers in costume. All shop workers, guides etc are in period costume as well as roving entertainment. We saw an 'arrest'. Not sure of his misdemeanor but he was in a dress and yelling for all to hear something about not seeing the queen panning for gold which he repeated serve real times as a 'policeman' held a bayonet to his back and marched him through the Main Street. I suspect for a visit to hospital to sober up. Quite entertaining to watch. Certainly all very entertaining, staff friendly and always in character with their interaction with the public. Would like to give it more time to catch up on some of the reenactments that we missed. Such as candle making, boiled sweet making, a walking mine tour and firing of muskets. We did see the soldiers marching though.
We left the park and had a quick drive around some of the holders parts of town. We also saw the Arche of Honour commemoratin all soldiers who enlisted from the district. Beyond the Arche were more than 3000 trees planted for each of the enlisted personnel, each with a personally named plaque. We also drove past a large lake in the centre of town obviously set up for rowing and water races.
We then drove south heading for Port Campbell and the start of the Great Ocean Road. On our way we saw many changes in the country side. From dry sheep grazing land through to hyper saline lakes gum and pine forests finishing of course at the magnificent cliffs of Port Campbell. After a quick look (it was blowing a gale and cold we hit The Great Ocean Road. Not far along we came across our one must see. 12 Apostles well first five anyway. Everything else was bonus. They were magnificent. We saw similar in Tasmania although these were on a much much larger scale. We drove on.
We did a side trip to the Cape Otway Light House which is also the southern most point of Australia mainland.
Sadly we missed the fine print on the sign which told us light was closed. We did, however, see a large mob of large kangaroos and three very large koalas just waking from their sleep.
We continued onto Apollo Bay and found a Devine Fish and Chip. Luckily able to book ahead some accommodation for Geelong so headed out very contented.
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