After 3,5 months on an amazing trip to Queensland, it did not take too long before we started getting that urge to hit the road again. With work being a bit slow at present, we decided to hook up and head out to somewhere, anywhere, nowhere.
Then Bert got a call to run a one day training program in Nhill! “Where is Nhilll?” you may ask. That was our question too. We discovered it was a good 420km North West of Yarra Glen on the way to Adelaide. Well, that's it then – we were heading off in that direction to enjoy a new part of this amazing country. From Nowhere to Nhill. Some say nil happens in Nhill. Well to our delight that's not exactly true!
We had about 5 days to get there so, avoiding the highways, we just headed out through the Victorian countryside and enjoyed a good slow drive on the roads less travelled.
On our journey we passed through rolling green hills, open flat wheat and canola fields, sheep country, and through some interesting 'Ye Old World’ Australian villages.
This blog provides some insights into the wonderful sights and experiences we had. Enjoy the journey with us…….
Chewton
One of the first of the towns we came across was Chewton – a wander into history when in the Gold Rush days up to 30,000 gold diggers lived in the area mining for gold.
Maldon
No travel would be complete without some bush camping near Maldon, in the Historical Nature Reserve. We enjoyed a night in the bush with very few people around. A beautiful evening around the fire was just what we needed.
Maldon is a beautiful and historic town, which was also one of the many Gold mining towns in the area, in years gone by. The town has kept its historic architecture creating an attractive tourist destination.
Minyip
We enjoyed a detour to the lovely little town of Minyip.
During our years in the Netherlands we used to watch a very popular Australian TV series at the time. Flying Doctors was a dramatized series based on the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Minyip was used as the home base for filming. We loved the series as it showed us a lot of Australian life, especially the beautiful Outback and village life style. Many of these old towns are not dissimilar to the old towns in South Africa. Here are some of the sites that were used in the series. On YouTube one can see some of the sections of this famous series.
During our years in the Netherlands we used to watch a very popular Australian TV series at the time. Flying Doctors was a dramatized series based on the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Minyip was used as the home base for filming. We loved the series as it showed us a lot of Australian life, especially the beautiful Outback and village life style. Many of these old towns are not dissimilar to the old towns in South Africa. Here are some of the sites that were used in the series. On YouTube one can see some of the sections of this famous series.
At the entrance to the town is a simple monument to this series and in town a historic board that speaks of the filming of this long running series in Minyip.
These are some of the sites used in the filming of the Flying Doctos
Avoca
We also enjoyed a few days in Avoca and visited the local market and Ute Muster – it takes all kinds……
Avoca also gave us an opportunity to buy some good old country meat at the local butcher – fresh, excellent quality and great price.
We love supporting these guys as they always offer the best they can as their lives depend on it. We saw a notice outside a country shop which read 'Country businesses are like muscles. If you don't use them, you lose them'. Sadly for a number of shop owners, it is painfully true.
Nhill
Not too far from Nhill we came across the Pink Lake, which on this day was not as Pink. It is a salt lake and shows off its pink colour more in cloudy conditions. Unfortunately we passed this on a scorcher of a day at 40 degrees C.
Bert enjoyed a great day training the local Shire team and we enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Commercial Hotel. The best hotel pub meal we have had yet. Well worth a stop over if you ever come past this way – on the road to Adelaide.
Surprisingly we discovered Boerewors (South African Sausage) at the local Nhill butcher. We heard that many South Africans lived there – especially Doctors and Nurses. Doctors migrating to Australia have to work in the rural areas for 5 years before they can move to the cities. This is why there is such a strong South African presence there, and explains the delicious boerewors for sale!
And Finally...
As always we did come across some really interesting buildings on these travels. Two that stood out for us were the following:
In Lancefield, on taking a walk one morning we really saw a combination of the Old with the New. A really old and run down shed - with a Solar Panels on the roof. I reckon those panels were worth way more than the shed!
In Chewton, next to the town hall, we came across the old Goal. This was used to lock up the criminals during the mining period. With very little ventilation - it must have been a sauna in these jails.
And finally a look at the journey less travelled....which was now travelled and enjoyed
The towns we visited included:
A: Yarra Glen
B: Lancefield
C: Chewton
D: Maldon
E: Avoca
F: Minyip
G: Nhill
H: Bendigo
I : Shepparton
J: Yarra Glen
No comments:
Post a Comment