My friend Shannon is visiting us again, and it’s been twenty years since she was last here. This time, we did a bit more touring, and I want to preserve some of my memories and impressions, so here goes. This might be terribly dull.
Shannon and I started off with Ballarat and Sovereign Hill. I have been there twice already this year, once with Finley and another time with Nicky, so there wasn’t much that was new to me. But Shannon is interested in this sort of thing as much as I am, and it was interested to see it through her eyes. And I always enjoy being there, even without excellent company.
I don’t have anything especially profound or interesting to say about Sovereign Hill, but we did stay in a place called Craig’s Royal Hotel, which is quite grand and elderly. I know this is almost always the case, but I am always struck by how much smaller hotel rooms are in person compared to the photos. And, on an unrelated item, the mass of poker machines in such an old and grand establishment was a bit jarring. But such is life in hotels these days. I can say though that it was a good place to stay and I’d recommend it.
Then we drove to Swan Hill in my little car. I was a little bit worried about how many car would do on the open road with two people and luggage, but it was fine. The most direct route didn’t take us through any towns of decent size, but it was interesting to go through a bunch of little places and just take in the changing country side.
We did stop for lunch in Kerang, which was larger than I was expected. The cafe had newspapers covering some of the walls, some from as early as 1980, and this was interesting in its own way. I was particularly interested in these computer jobs in the early 80s.
Things had not been busy and Sovereign Hill on a Sunday, but it was really quiet at the Pioneer Settlement on a week day that was not in school holidays. We worried that it might be super dull, but we ended up there for about three hours and all the little shops and whatnot ended up being quite interesting. We even went for a trip in a terribly old Dodge, which was good fun, and looked at various bit of farm machinery. Not high excitement, to be sure, but interesting enough.
We did the paddle-steamer trip mid-afternoon, and we really enjoyed that, too. It was pleasant and leisurely way to see the river. The experience of the Pioneer Settlement was gently paced but I really enjoyed it.
We went back at night for the sound-and-light show. I had seen something with the same name there in the early 80s when I was on a school camp, but this was entirely new and updated, as you’d expected after more than 40 years. I think the advertising material called it something like awe-inspiring and it certainly wasn’t that. But it was interesting, well presented, and just the right length. Surprisingly, there were about 50 people there.
So that’s about it for that part of the trip. Next up, part of the art silo trail and the stick shed.
Fun to see this again. Good times.