Saturday Aug. 17...Victoria Market

Saturday another slow start but a gorgeous day…..headed in to Melbourne about 1pm and got off at Parliament and gathered information for an earth cache about Impossible Fossils.  As I wandered down to Federation Square and went to phone Curt, I realized I hadn’t turned on my phone and he had already texted me. (I am getting better at texting, by the way….sometimes I even surprise myself that I can get it out a little faster than my slow snail pace!)  We met up at the square which is a very busy place on a Saturday and then headed over to their apartment  drop of the things he was carrying. I talked to Natasha from the doorway not wanting to go in because she was sick (don’t want to catch anything now!)…..she sounded awful!

Curt and I walked up to Victoria Market   http://www.qvm.com.au/ and each bought some fruits and vegetables just as most of the produce stalls were closing.  We stopped for a snack/lunch at a middle eastern stall…..(I forget the name but will edit it in later)….ground lamb that is wrapped in a flat bread…it might have even been baked around the meat filling.  We ate it while enjoying a couple of street musicians playing 50’s and 60’s rock and roll.   We got some soup to take back to Natasha too. 

We started back down to Flinders Station, finding a cache along the way.  There is something really strange going on in Melbourne right now ….adults… and some children…seemingly sane….wearing costumes.  No it’s not a Comicon Convention, these are adult versions of the cheap one piece costumes you get for kids at Halloween. Dragons, rabbits, tigers, penguins……  Weird!!!

Hmmmmm?

Sunday Aug. 18.….Ballarat  

I wanted to visit Ballarat, which is about 120km northwest of Melbourne.  I thought that a new series that I had been watching on Knowledge called Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, was set in Ballarat.  But I realize only one episode was set here the rest are set in Melbourne.  So I met Curt on Sunday morning at Southern Cross station to catch the  10:30 V-line to Ballarat  

I love to ride the trains…you can sit back and enjoy the scenery while someone else does the driving…..mind you, you can’t stop and cache along the way!  Lots of farmland sheep, cattle and horses…..oh and a beautiful rainbow!

Ballarat, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballarat    is a city that grew up around a gold rush in the 1850’s.  I understand that about 2kms outside the city there is a gold museum and  a town set up much like Barkerville    www.barkerville.ca    in British Columbia.  But  Curtis and I just walked the streets of the main town, checking out the buildings and the stores and the beautiful boulevard.  Of course along the way we found some caches….that took  us to a theatre, a heritage street, a church, the Chinese village site and an earth cache about the stone used in the statues down the boulevard.



 

The weather was predictably unpredictable!  The sun shone, then wind, then rain, then sun, then wind, then rain!!!! 

We stopped for a delicious lunch at a restaurant that looked very popular with the locals, to warm  up and dry out. Curt had a steak (they put an egg on it) and I had a hamburger in a bun like a thick pita bread….yummy  

After a a great day of exploring we got on the 4:00 train, travelling through the countryside in the sunshine,  arriving at Southern Cross at about 5:30.

Little Bo Peep lost her dragon, penguin, tiger and blue ?

  

Monday August 19...Movie Night

Another slow start to the day and another day that I woke up to beautiful sunshine and by the time I left to catch the train it had rained and sunshined at least 3 time!!!. 

My plans were to find a cache (still working on the one a day challenge)and then  go see Curt while having a coffee before heading up to Lygon Street to meet the Monday night movie group

After the coffee/visit  I got on a tram towards Lygon Street and got off to gather information for an Earthcache and do 2 more caches (one I didn’t find) and then met with the ladies.  We decided to see The Red Obsession http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2419284/  a documentary about the wine industry in France and China….very interesting.  Then we went to dinner at Jimmy Watson's http://www.dimmi.com.au/restaurant/jimmy-watsons for another delicious dinner. I had a great time but I haven’t weighed myself lately but with all of these great dinners, I need some more exercising!!!

Tuesday August 20.…..Caching day

I caught the South Morag line the opposite way today….I went north to the end of the line, to meet up with Jacqueline aka Cuddlefish and her son Evan to find Melbourne’s 1st cache, which is about 60 kms north Reservoir, where I am.

South Morang is the end of this train line but you can see that the line is going to continue….there is a tunnel that is draped  when you get off the train.  I found the cache outside the station where I am to meet Jacqueline…..they show up a few minutes later.  We went across the street to stock up with some water and treats and batteries for the day. The shopping centre here is so close to the station that I think I will come back here later to stock up with groceries.

We followed J.’s GPS which takes us on an back road through some beautiful countryside, hills and large trees.  We even saw a kangaroo jump across the road!  The cache, Melbourne’s 1st , is an old one placed in Oct. of 2000 ( geocaching was started May 2000),  and placed in a beautiful location…. a view overlooking a valley with farms and a couple of billabongs.  Then we were off headed back towards town, caching along the way.  Passing through towns called Flowerdale, Pheasant Creek, and having lunch at Whittlesea.  We ended up at Wombat Bend   http://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/play/playgrounds/templestowe_lower_playgrounds/wombat_bend.html?s=0  a park with lots of caches and an amazing playground for Evan after we found some caches and got rained on!  I think I found about 15 caches today….I haven’t logged them yet so I don’t know the final count! 

But we had a great day Jacqueline did a great job of driving (she’s an Aussie who now lives in Vancouver)  remembering  how to drive on the other side of the road and handle Melbourne's traffic and streets.   And Evan found lots of the caches for us and was very patient  on the long drive.