Maldon Motors

As we walked about we could see that the town had kept its old authentic look. Even the old way of refueling a car from the curbside was still being done. There were lots of interesting cars about (there was even a car museum) but this old Morris suited the moment and set the tone.

This was obviously a day to go touring in your car that you otherwise keep under cover. That's if you had one!

Our car had special company for a time. We were well located under a tree so we did not bother moving and simply had our lunch at the rear end standing in the street. It seemed a natural thing to do. We seemed to be able to find what we were after without any trouble.

Maldon Music

Now Maldon had been below our radar. Because it was also having an Easter Festival we though we might go there too. It was just nearby. It turned out to be an excellent decision and we stayed there the whole time that we had spare on our Easter Saturday. We found the most elaborate busker ever and John requested a Johnny Cash song and 'Wacca' sang him two. All the time his trusty mechanical koala tapped away, mostly with the beat. Impressive.

Wacca had laid out free balloons one side and music toys for children to join in with him on the other. Wacca's rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for the kids had a raspy country edge to it. He made it sound so natural that way.

In case people could not cope with Wacca, at the other end the Maldon Brass Band played some good old favourites. Between the music makers were demonstrations of sheep shearing, gold prospecting, and food, souvenir and clothing stalls.

Barb, Ann and John posed on the old WWII cannon for a snap before we moved on to explore the rest of Maldon.

Clevedon Breakfasts

On both mornings we had an enjoyable breakfast. Libby the cook ran in and got our orders and returned with the hot stuff. We served ourselves the rest from the servery. All that was pretty much as one would expect. What was different was the delightful surroundings. We felt we were millionaires in a place like that. It was at the second of these breakfasts that a place called Maldon was recommended for us to see.

The owner of the house bred show horses and had won many prizes at the Melbourne Show. There were numerous framed portraits of his prize horses on the walls with the prize winning sashs draped over them. It all made for the atmosphere.

Clevedon

Well, we had to stay somewhere and at the last minute we scored Clevedon Manor of Castlemaine. This was yet another blessing. We always leave things till the last minute but due to a cancellation we were able to stay there. How good is that!

This place is pretty nice, especially in the early morning when the sun spreads its warm fingers across the green leaves and into the shadows. The place also has a massive front hedge. There were very nice photo opportunities.

What is more, the place came with a working pianola with loads of music scrolls. We all had a turn pumping the peddles and enjoyed the old marching music that 'thumped' out of it. Just look at the concentration and effort Barb is giving it on her turn.

It works on air. When it escapes out of a hole in the moving scroll a piano key is pulled down and a hammer hits a note. It is a bit like the (X-Box) electronic game 'Guitar Hero', only in reverse. It's like we were really playing the piano. Sometimes the scroll lost its line and the tune went silly, but that was rare and we had a great time pretending we were accomplished.

Dragon Dance

One of the first things we got to see on Good Friday was a Dragon dance performed by some school children of Bendigo. It was strange to see something so Chinese being presented by Australian children who worked the dance moves as though they had lived in china all their lives. What a special culture Bendigo has keeping alive their Chinese heritage which came from the gold rush days when so many Chinese arrived to seek their fortune.

Good Friday View

While in Bendigo we found this mining tower just up the hill from the city centre. It had been made into a lookout tower with steps right to the top, so up we went. The next four snaps show how we looked after the accomplishment. Pretty OK really. There was no chance of falling, that's for sure.

This is a ninety-degree pan of the city with the camera peeking through the wire netting, taking a series of six. It is amazing what computers can do to stitch them together. We were blessed with one of those perfect Autumn days. (We will share about other blessings as more adventure stories are unwrapped.)

Good Thursday Friday

We are not sure what to call this. Four of us came together as the parents of Bec and Gord to do our thing about region of Bendigo and Castlemanie. It proved to be a God event from the very start, but more of that later . We felt blessed from any perspective, so we will tell a bit about it here and probably more in the next six blogs, such is the amount of new material.

There was our picnic just down from one of Bendigo's mining towers near the city's centre. We had a relaxing time of it, making it into a banquet and watching the tree's shadow move.

Then we walked through Bendigo's garden parkland, hearing the trams passing by in the distance. We poked our noses into lots of places, sometimes having to pay and sometimes not. We made collective decisions what to see and if we needed to at all. Bendigo was having its Easter festival. Forgot to mention that. So that was why we went that way for our grand parents outing.

And of course we stopped at places to eat or just to coffee... even at MacDonnalse Cafe on one occasion. How exotic is that!