Peter & Teresa Go Global...

This will include Ballarat...

DAY 32: Travel day, Qantas internal flight and hire car (Toyota Camry) to Joy & Peter’s in Langwarrin, south of Melbourne.

DAY 33: After breakfast, Joy & Peter drove us first to their daughter Katie’s to meet their grandsons Damen and Brandon. Katie explained that houses were referred to by their square meterage and Peter pointed out that single storey dwellings were houses (the term ‘bungalow’ refers to what we would call a ‘granny flat’ and almost all houses are detacheed so UK terms ‘terraced’ and ‘semi’ don’t indicate size. Then off to a village called Sassefras, where we strolled around a few small shops and purchased some unusual teas. Next, Mt.Dandenong (about 660m), where we took in a hazy panoramic view back to Melbourne etc. and an ‘English’ garden. We then moved on for coffee and some very indulgent cakes at Olinda Golf Course Clubhouse and a close look at the huge Gum trees (Joy explained that it was the oily nature of the Gum trees’ foliage that fuelled the bush fires). We spotted a Kookaburra as we left the car park for a tour around the Dandenong range area and on to Cardinia Park to find and photograph some kangaroos (yet to find out what a group of kangaroos are called). After a short while back at ‘home’, we ventured out again, this time visiting the coast at Frankstone, including a walk on the jetty. Finally, on for a particularly good ‘indian’ meal at ‘Two Lil Indians’, Callum and a tour of the Christmas lights around the local housing estates (it’s very difficult to feel Christmassy!)

DAY 34: After a breakfast, which included the biggest chicken eggs I’ve ever seen, the morning was spent chatting and going through family photo’s including one of Teresa’s great-grandad. Joy also introduced us to her international dialling card (SuperBuzzGlobal), offering cheap calls to the UK (we bought it!). We set off, about 13:00, for Ballarat. We’ve seen speed limit’s from 40 to 100, this was the first trip at 110 – it is noticeable that very, very few people break the speed limits on city streets and freeways, not even by a few percent. There is a great feeling of space here, you could get 11 lanes into the width of the main street in Ballarat! The evening saw us watching the outdoor light’n’sound show “Blood on the Southern Cross” at Sovereign Hill – an excellent production starting 21:15, we were a tad cold and lucky to avoid the earlier cloudbursts. It told of a rebellion against bent British government representatives and their loyal English soldiers by gold-rush diggers (who were mainly Irish, Welsh and Cornish).