1^st January, Thursday 2015

We left Hamilton after breakfast after some sad goodbyes to Jenny, Doug, Beryl and Caroline.  Thank you Jenny, Doug, Beryl and Caroline for an awesome time and Jenny and Doug again for all your hospitality and cooking Jenny, it was awesome. Thankyou to Doug for all the history lessons of the region and for being such a great tour guide. We really enjoyed this part of Australia and there is so much more to see so we will be back on another trip to see it all. We arrived back in Bendigo before lunch and got the van out of jail and spent the rest of the day unpacking and sorting ourselves out. We will see Beryl and Caroline or Catherine on Saturday as they are driving to Bendigo for the day for Ralphs birthday so I will miss them after that HAHA. There are 2 caravans parked behind us, both couples are from Queensland and travelling together.  We were invited for happy hour and they have been to the places that we are yet to visit so we got some really good pointers of where to go, where to stay and what to see, this is the way it works around these caravan parks.

2^nd January, Friday

There is nothing much to tell you today folks.  We went and did some shopping and have spent the rest of the day vegging in the caravan in the aircon.  The airconditioning is struggling with the heat.  It’s 41 degrees today and tomorrow will be 42.  Thankfully we are parked under a nice shaded tree which I think is helping a smidge.  Poor Hugo is huffing and puffing so we have had to hose him down to keep him cool.

3^rd January, Saturday (Happy Birthday to my Ralphie)

Hot as Hades again today although the breeze was coolish this morning.  We ran the aircon all night last night as it was hot, I think the minimum temp during the night was 30 degrees.  There are bush fires all over the place and lost houses again…….. it’s so sad.  Beryl and Catherine drove up from Melbourne to come and have lunch with us for Ralphs birthday and then drove all the way back again.  It was so good to see them and we are going to miss everyone.  We had drinks with our neighbours who are leaving in the morning to go to Tasmania.  They will put their van and car on the ferry to go over and we plan to do this on our next trip.  We wanted to do that on this trip and spend 3 months over there but we are having too much fun piss farting around in the bush at the mo and we thought that we had better get our bums back to Perth by April/May because we are missing everyone (Mushy….. EISH).

4^th January, Sunday

Today is a much cooler day (31 degrees), we had quite a bit of rain during the night which was quite refreshing.  We went to Maldon which is an old Victorian Gold town, settled in 1853 due to the gold rush.  It’s a charming little town and has kept all its 19^th century appearance.  The town boasts lots of little bric-a-brac, antique and quant little coffee shops. As with most gold mining towns they streets are really wide and it takes ages to cross them without getting run over but thankfully this is a little place so the traffic is not huge. There are loads of old charming little cottages which are occupied and I would love to have a peek inside. Many of them are set right on the road with the odd few which have out houses set a little further back. We had breakfast at one of the little cafes which was al fresco as are most of them and they all cater for dogs.  All along the street there are water bowls for the poochies put out by the owners of the little shops. From there we went and visited the local cemetery (as we do) to catch a bit of history and then drove back to Bendigo through Castlemaine which is a lovely leafy town, oak trees lining the main streets. Back to base and a relaxing afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5^th January, Monday

Another warm today so we decided to visit the Great Stupa of Universal compassion early while it was still cool.  The Great Stupa is a Buddhist temple which is being built at the moment and is a replica of a Stupa in Tibet and when completed will be the largest Stupa in the Western World. We were given a quite extensive tour with quite extensive information and history of the whole project. The Jade Buddha you see in my pictures is only a replica as the real Jade Buddha is still touring the world before it is brought to its final resting place in the Stupa.  The Buddha was carved from one single slab of Jade. The whole property is a community which have plans to build a school, houses which can be purchased (but not the land), an old age facility and all sorts of other community based projects. There is a monastry for the Buddhist monks and a monastry for the Buddhist nuns although we didn’t get to see that.  The whole experience was amazing and we loved it.  Hugo was allowed to come into the temple although he didn’t have to take his shoes off (HAHAHA). I have pasted a brief history of the temple which I found on the internet.

“The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Information

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Exhibition Centre has a vast collection of sacred Buddhist relics on display that have been offered from many Buddhist traditions including Burmese, Chinese, Mongolian, Thai, Tibetan and Vietnamese. The Great Stupa is being built near Bendigo and when complete will be 50 metres square at its base and nearly 50 metres high. This will make it the largest Stupa in the Western World. The architecture, engineering and construction of the Great Stupa are based on the requirement for the Great Stupa to last for 1,000 years. The Great Stupa structure is now well over half completed and already a popular attraction for people of all traditions. The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace is the largest Buddha carved from gemstone quality jade in the world. The Jade Buddha is over two and a half metres high and sits on an alabaster throne of one and a half metres high. The Jade Buddha is on tour throughout major cities in the world before being set up at The Great Stupa in Bendigo. Currently nearly seven million people from the US, Canada, Vietnam, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Japan and India have attended Jade Buddha world tour. Significance of The Great Stupa is that culturally, it is the largest Buddhist Stupa in the West and largest Jade Buddha in the world. Archaeologically it is based on Borobudur, Indonesia, a ninth Century UNESCO listed world heritage site and 15th Century, Gyantse Stupa, considered a ‘chief wonder’ of the Tibetan Buddhist world. And iconically it is a major domestic and international tourist attraction symbolising Australia’s multicultural heritage”

We spent the rest of the day packing a few things and generally vegging. We are leaving tomorrow and heading for Swan Hills where we will spend a few days.