Day 33 - Mount Franklin; visiting Bendigo and Daylesford area

Wednesday 4 March

Last night we had a bit of light rain that continued until close to the morning. A few times during the night there were some unusual noises from some bird or animal quite close to the van but I didn't want to unzip the end to look out because when everything is quiet unzipping is do loud do I just laid there & waited for the noise to pass. I must have fallen back to sleep because next thing I knew the rain had stopped but it sounded like a swarm or either bees or flies were around our caravan. They seemed to pass on & we eventually got out & started our day.

We looked at the things we wanted to do & planned a route up to Bendigo via Turpin Falls to have a look around then returning to Daylesford to do food shopping & laundry.

Consistent with our aim to try to support small local towns, we couldn't resist Glenlyon! You can see this town on the map a little way north-east of Daylesford. The road leading into Glenlyon was a gorgeous tree-lined avenue, similar to Victoria Ave in Hyde Park if you're familiar with that, but more open at the sides. So when we found a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, in the form of "The Old Glenlyon General Store", we couldn't resist! Originally we thought of just grabbing a couple of takeaway coffees, but once we stepped inside it was like stepping into another world! A few years ago we were in the Lake District in the UK, and this felt like an Australian version of the Kirkstile Inn, where we enjoyed a traditional English afternoon tea!

This place had the low roof (in parts), dark corners, rustic wooden furniture, and uneven wooden floor, so we ordered 2 cappuccinos & a large hot choc for the kids & some fruit muffins to share. 

Our next stop was a natural spring water tap not far from the general store. This wasn't on the list, but the Daylesford area is apparently well-known for its mineral springs, so we thought we should give it a try.

 
We found a spare water bottle in the car & pumped some water in & pasted it around to try. Because it's full of minerals it smelt quite different to other water we've tried. Sort of eggy or bore water smell. Then it was time to try, our overall response was that we didn't like it. It was naturally bubbly with a slight salty taste then a bit earthy & grassy & a bit yuck in the back of your throat after swallowing. I'm sure it's very good for you with all the minerals but we just couldn't get past the taste & smell! I'm not sure what they do to the natural bottled water in the shops so it doesn't taste so gross!

We then moved on towards Turpin Falls. I did some menu planning & made a shopping list ready for when arriving in Daylesford. It had started to rain just a tiny bit when we arrived at Turpin falls but we had a look anyway. There wasn't any water fall but a lovely looking lake at the bottom.

At this stage Matt discovered he could find his jacket that he had on earlier! Noooo! And yes, this is NOT the same article of clothing he lost at Sovereign Hill! So it was back to investigation in our photos to work out when he did & didn't have it on. It looked to be back at the Cafe we'd stopped st earlier. We gave them a call & they couldn't find anything apart from a wallet. So we tried to think where it could have been - the only other possibility was at Glenlyon spring. We decided to head to Bendigo & then get it on the way back.

We arrived in Bendigo around lunch time and headed for a Coles to buy some supplies & then to look around. As we were heading into Coles, Bek discovered her wallet was missing & remembered she'd left it in the toilet at the Cafe. Oh dear! So we rang the Cafe again & said the wallet they'd found was actually ours TOO! They closed which was 4pm, but by this time it was 2.30ish & we had roughly an hour trip back, so we rushed down some lunch and headed straight off. So our few hours of sightseeing around Bendigo turned into a quick "there's a tree, there's a tower, oh look at that wall, quick grab the green light!". We headed straight for the cafe & got there with 3 mins to spare because of roadworks along the way also. They still hadn't found the jacket but we were hopeful it'd be at the springs - thankfully it was! The lost had now been found & returned. Ahhhh!

We then headed into Daylesford. First stop laundromat & Coles was across the road. I left Greg, Bek & Jude to do the washing while I headed across the road to do food shopping. We got everything but then couldn't find any toilet paper. Oh dear everyone is going crazy about toilet paper because of this Coronavirus. We got to the checkout & I discovered I'd left my card in Greg's wallet so I didn't need to carry my bag everywhere. (Don't worry I hadn't lost it this time. I'm very careful after losing it on our 6 week trip in 2017. Thankfully I did manage to find it 3 days later on the same dirt track but it was still a pain at the time to have to back track.)

I sent Matt across the road while I unloaded the trolley & had a few laughs with other customers & check out people about toilet paper & how unusual it was that canned food & disinfectant aren't disappearing first. They seemed to agree & hoped to see more toilet paper arriving soon.

We headed back across the road by which time the washing had been put through the dryer & just needed one last go before we could pack up & leave. 

We wanted to visit another natural spring tap in Daylesford to see if it tasted the same but by the time we got there it was raining again. Oh dear. We still got out and had a quick look around. The area was very pretty as it was set around a lake.

 

Then I looked up something we could possibly do indoors. Apparently the Amazing Mill Market was something worth visiting, so we went to see what that was all about.Well it's basically a big shed set up with lots of unmanned stalls of what seemed like overpriced op shop goods.

Some stuff was new but still pricey so we had a quick poke around & then thought it was probably time to head back & have dinner. 

As I was making dinner the kids made a little fire. A few more cars had come into the reserve for the night & we suddenly found one traveller was on our door step. He then politely asked if he could have some of our hot coals to start his fire & also if he could borrow our shovel to do do. We obliged as it had started to rain & we needed to have dinner.

We had dinner then I washed Beks hair the old fashioned way with a bucket & cup. While washing her hair another lady (about in her 60s) came across & chatted about how she used to have her hair done like this when she was younger & also to ask if she could cook some potatoes on our coals as she wasn't going to be making a fire just for one. So off she went & came back with her potatoes. Pity we didn't charge for the use of our fire - we could have made a nice penny! I had noticed a few times walking past her car she had quite a tiny set up but I couldn't see where she would sleep so asked so she gave me a tour of her set up. She'd taken out all the seats in her car apart from the driver's seat & put a bed down the passenger side & storage shelves in the back of her car. It's a tiny Hyundai Getz so she's used the space pretty well & has a awning attached to the side of her car which she uses to sit under & cook etc. We then came back to check on her potatoes & we then needed to get the kids to bed & head to bed ourselves. 

-- Mim