Up high to go down low

 And another thing about Magpies. Someone at home told us that you see cyclists with bits of wire or zip ties sticking up from their helmets to stop being dive bombed by Magpies. It's true! When I saw the first one, I thought he was trying to pick up WiFi or something... Some people even stick eyes on the back of their helmets because they go for your eyes. Alfred Hitchcock had nothing on these guys!

Today was spent learning a little about the gold rush heritage of this area. We went to Sovereign Hill, near Ballarat. The second most productive gold mine, for it's size, in the world. It was a kind of Beamish (if that helps), a whole community created to portray life in these challenging times, complete with genuine artefacts from the time and tours down existing mines. 

We took a trip down a mine. You start by descending steeply on a kind of funicular which plunges you into oblivion. Whilst doing so, the lights go out. You cannot see your hand in front of your face. They say it's to help your eyes get accustomed to the dark. Yeah, right. Nothing to do with cranking up the excitement at all. But it was an interesting and sobering experience. The men who worked the drills, known as 'widow-makers', went deaf within six months. I thought being a music teacher was bad enough. Notice how I avoid all the Dad jokes about it being a mine of inf Anyway, when we arrived, we needed several coats, hats and warm clothes. I didn't know that was a thing in Australia! I looked up the altitude for Ballarat and discovered we were over 10,000 feet up. That might explain it.) and my ears going pop.

The experience was rounded off with a demonstration of pouring out a quite modest sized bar of gold. The guide told us that it was worth about $3,350 and the price of gold goes up more if the world is in a mess. He's never known it to go up like it is at the moment.... 

Driving back along the freeway, I was intrigued by signs saying 'Tired eyes? Take a power nap'. Perhaps they're referring to passengers? I didn't try it anyway. Perhaps I will tomorrow. We're going even further down the sticky out bit at the bottom right hand corner of Australia

Sovereign Hill gold mine

There's gold in them thur hills


Me with cousin Julie and Tony
One of the pickups you see here in Oz. When you consider how huge Kate is, that thing is a monster!


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