Central Victoria

My final day was marked by cold winds and constant showers.  But the last 300km into Melbourne was not without its scenic and historical interest.

I did a wander around Horsham which I found to be a quite thriving regional city.  Even there on this eve of AFL Grand Final day footy fever had a grip, with people wearing jumpers and scarves in their team colours. 

Heading off towards Ballarat, I took a diversion through part of the Grampians to the village of Halls Gap.  Very winding road, similar to the Beechmont-Gold Coast one.  But very pretty.  Halls Gap was teeming with caravans and campervans, and seemed totally set up for nature-loving holidaymakers.

Stawell is famous for its annual Easter professional footrace meeting:  The Gift over 120 metres being the highlight.  The Hall of Fame there has a wonderful collection of memorabilia and a complete photographic record of the event’s history.  The town also services one of the few remaining gold mines in production.

Nearer to Ballarat one passes through the village of Great Western, home to Penfolds.  Then Ararat, which was once a thriving goldmining town.  It has an interesting museum of Chinese culture – a memorial to the thousands of Chinese who flocked to the gold fields as prospectors and labourers.

Melbourne Airport has to be the most unfriendly pace to navigate.  Trying to return my hire car I twice ended up in pay parking areas and had to fork out $4 each time to escape.  Signage is almost non-existent.  Grand final extra traffic and bad weather had the airline schedules in chaos:  more delay announcements than boarding calls.  My flight finally got away 40 minutes late.

So the 5 day adventure, covering 1300km in all, has ended.  Thoroughly enjoyable and informative, and most worthwhile!

A few last pics here