Next stop after Ballarat is Grampians. Mr.Navigator and I traveled by train from Ballarat to Ararat and bus-ed from Ararat to Halls Gap. Took a shuttle bus to our accommodation - Tim's Place (will blog about that place in the next post or 2). 

One thing all tourists should know about Halls Gap, IT'S A TOURIST RIP OFF PLACE!!! All grocery items there's like double the price in Melbourne city itself. But then again, when you're there and you need food, what are you gonna do about it right? Just something you guys should know, if you're planning to travel there, try bringing some food beforehand and only buy something that you really need.    

After settling down in Tim's Place, we headed out to the Pinnacles right away. We had to pass through a camping site, cross a bridge and go through 2 gates. From there, it's following the signs. But sadly, due to the rain a few days ago, there was a landslide and they had to close off the pathway leading to the Grampians =.=' Had to backtrack to the Information Centre in the town area and ask for alternative routes. We were told that the only way up was to drive up to the Wonderland Carpark and trek from there, but unfortunately, WE DIDN'T RENT A CAR!!!! However, we were really lucky to bump into a couple travelling from Adelaide - Shell & James (they're musicians and were on their tour! How cool's that?!) Anyway, they offered us a ride up to the Carpark and trekked up to the Pinnacles together.

From left: Me, Mr.Navigator, Shell and James.

The view from Wonderland Carpark.

Halfway up to the pinnacles.

Stopped along the way to snap some of these fantastic views.

It's amazing how Mother Nature had all these 'steps' made for us to trek  as well as some man made trek aids.

This reminded me of the Three Sister in Blue Mountains, Sydney. I called this The 3 Brothers. Lol lame 

2 remarkable rocks like the ones I saw in Limestone Coast.

It was starting of Spring when we went there, wildflowers were starting to bloom like the one in the picture.

Oh, and our trek was accompanied by these 2 crawlies. There were sooo many of them along the way. The 'mou mou' (furry caterpillar) was pretty scary as they'll give you rashes if your touch them, so I was pretty scared that 1 might accidentally drop on me. Haha!

There was this lil cave-like area called the Cool Chamber. And believe it or not, it WAS cool when you step into it.

Of course, a trip will not be fun without some camwhoring session.

Refreshing at the Bride's Veil.

More camwhoring sessions.

After 2-3 hours of hardwork, we finally made it to the pinnacles! What a satisfaction I tell you. Just WOAH!!!And notice my shirt it says " I'm addicted. Take me high". Haha! How can I resist?

Again, we did some dangerous things just for awesome pictures of us to be taken. Seriously no joke! One slip and I'm dead. But I just had to, you know. LOL!

Pretty amazing shots huh! We were SO high up!! Hehe.

I'm hiked with my faithful pair of black converse. My oldest and longest pair of shoes! I used to change a pair every year till I found Converse. LOL!! 

After climbing back down from the Pinnacles, Shell and James were kind enough to let us ride with them to Mckenzie Falls, known to be a massive waterfall.

Side profile of Mckenzie's Fall.

Some camwhoring session as well.. Hehe

Notice that there are more pictures of Mr.Navigator than me? He's such a BIG camwhorer when up in the mountains! 

You've read part 1 & part 2, now down to Part 3. Phew...

Candle Making, another should see demonstration. Shows you the hardwork in making candles. And believe me, it's NOT easy. Not easy at all.

First you got to ring the ropes to that stand (1st picture) and it MUST be hooked in the correct way - 1 in, 1 out; or else failed candles will be produced. Next you'll hook the stand to a machine called Donkey's Ear I think (something Donkey la, lol) and dip it into the well of wax. Now here's the stressful part. You can only dip each stand of ropes into the well once every cycle. If you deep too many times, the wax won't be able to harden in time and end up being too heavy and the candle will just fail. 1 single candle has to be dipped into the wax 26 times, which means 26 cycles for each stand. How time consuming! To judge how many rounds a stand has been dipped is judged by the weight of the candle stand.

Another really interesting thing to see in the Gold Mine is this $80,000 Gold Pour. Where you'll witness an $80,000 gold ingot being poured into gold bar at the Gold Smelting Works.

Basically what happens in this 'kitchen' is that, the gold ingot gets burnt in a steel/iron pot (can't remember, hehe) up to at least 1000 degrees and then poured into this mould. Then from the mould it'll be knocked out into the shape of a gold bar (3rd picture). And obviously the bar is still uber hot as you can see it's still fire-red, it'll then be cooled in really cold water and walah~~~ A $80,000 gold bar is made (last picture). I think it's somewhat the same as making swords back in the olden days.

FYI, that gold bar he just made is REAL gold.

Then you can try lifting this $527,428.00 worth of gold bar (Replica only).

Then at 1.30pm everyday, you HAVE to witness the Redcoat Soldier March which only happens ONCE a day. They have lil kids dressed up and marching as well.

If you're in a mood for some portrait taking, go to their Photographic Room to take some family or couple or even single portrait as souvenirs. You get to dress in period costumes!

The dolls in the picture below are props that you can use while taking your portraits. To me, they are just like Chuckie the doll! Uber scary~~~

Another fun thing to do is to visit their Bowling Saloon. Play a round or two of olden day bowling! Everything is wooden. Wooden ball, wooden pins and wooden alley. a really REALLY loooong alley to roll your ball. By the time your ball reaches the pins, it has lost all it's momentum from the beginning =.='

What's left to do is to visit all their random little shops on Main Street. To guys means waiting and to girls, SHOPPING!!!!

The above is my favourite shop! You know why? 1 word, CANDY!!! which means Raspberry Drops! Really yummy and addictive candy. A MUST TRY!

Clarke Brothers is a grocery shop. Not so much like our grocery shops but it sells candies, drinks, kitchen utensils, soap, jams, coffee and tea, etc. More like our Kedai Runcit. Lol..

I find this mini coffee bean grinder really cute. And I'm sure my Dad would love this but too bad, it'll a little too pricey for me to afford :(

Next shop is more for us females because it has all sorts of nonsense that will attract us. Lol.

Knitted Doilies, Perfume bags, 3rd picture is something I find fascinating - hand knitted cups and saucers. There's also scissors in different shapes and sizes. Lastly is my favourite, Masquerade Masks! Somehow I have a thing for these masks. hehe

Then you can even customize a costume for yourself. That wiring skirt in the 2nd picture is 1 of the tools they use to make your costume.

Phew, finally done with Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.

Next will be on Grampians!!! Lots of pictures to share, so stay tune to this space! :)

Continuation to my previous post on the Gold Mine...

So you've sort of seen how the town looks like, the outfits and costumes on the workers, the most popular activity - Gold Panning (especially for kids), as well as the Chinese Camp.

Now more on what's there to see and do in Sovereign Hill.

The Red Hill Mining is a 15 minute self-guided tour 13 meters underground which reincarnates battling Cornish miner, Richard Jeffrey as he stumbles on what was the biggest gold nugget ever found - the Welcome Nugget, found on 9th June 1958, which was 69 kilograms, still the second largest nugget in the world. In this tour, the story is told using life-size, moving holograms and voice recordings. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to snap pictures during this tour.

The next tour we went to is 1 of the Gold Mine Tours. There are 3 to choose from - Labyrinth, Trapped and Chinese Tale (i think). Labyrinth basically shows you the working life of a miner, Trapped is based on the emotionally powerful true story of the disaster that struck Australia mine at Creswick, near Ballarat back in 1882; and the Chinese Tale is basically a made up story of 2 Chinese brothers who found and lost the gold they found in the mines. This tours cost $6 dollars each. Yes! After paying entrance fees, you have to pay for the tours as well. Aussie charges for every single thing separately =.='. Anyway, Mr. Navigator and I chose Labyrinth as it will tell us the dangers miners face while mining and how it actually works underground. This tour is a must-go if you ask me. I found it really informative as I certainly have no clue of the dangers miners face under.

So we took the tram in the picture above down into the dark underground mining trail. And from there, we were guided by a tour guide which I can't remember her name. The carriages in the picture below is basically what they use to transport themselves underground and also transporting what they have dug in it. I was pretty disappointed as I thought we would be able to sit in these while on the tour. LOL.
While on the tour, we were told that during the very early days of gold mining, the miners use a large iron hammer and hammer this steel cord through the walls. And the younger boys will be putting their lives in danger by holding the cord while other miners hammer them through the walls. Now the danger in holding the cord is that if the guy that's hammering misses the cord, then the boy who's holding the cord might end up having brain damage, broken arm or even end up dead. As years pass, mining companies started using TNTs. Under these mines, the deeper they go, the wetter it'll be. So when using TNTs, the miners faces huge risks of being blown up obviously. It may be due to defaults of the TNT, or even because of the water underground.

Again, as years pass, they came up with this really evil tool called the Widow Maker (picture below). Why is it called the Widow Maker? Well, only males work as miners. Back then, they didn't have protection gears such as goggles, face masks and ear-mufflers. And this machine-gun-looking tool, when operated, it makes really loud noise. And when I say loud, I mean you can go deaf with it. As it drills through the walls, the flakes of the wall's glass-like; so as the miners breathe in these flakes, it cuts their intestines and cause internal bleeding and infections to the lungs. Miners starts falling ill and die which leaves their wives husband-less. Thus the name - the Widow Maker. Despite these danger of this tool, it was still used and only after 20 years, they came up with protection gears =.=' Imagine how many lives were taken? How many widows were made?

Usually when miners spot gold, it is only a small spot. Only lucky miners come across these much gold. And yes, the gold in the picture below is REAL!

After this tour, I couldn't help but think how high was the death rate back in those mining days. LOL!

The next activity we went for was for me :D

Candy Making!!! I was sugar high on Raspberry Drops!

I'll roughly describe the steps of making these really addictive raspberry drops (above picture).Obviously there are more steps than just 6. Little details such as spreading flour to keep the caramel from sticking to the table is needed but I won't touch on that.

From picture 1 below(clockwise), 1st a caramel paste is made then the flavour paste is spread and knitted till the whole caramel changes colour. The caramel paste will then be cut into smaller pieces in order to fit into the mould roller. And walah~~~ Raspberry drops. And OMG! it's soooo yummy!!!

picture below shows the different types of shapes they have mould the candy into. The mould that he was using in his demonstration is at least 120 years old! Owned by the original owner of this candy making business. If I'm not mistaken, the owner is known as Mr. Brown.

Sorry, I have short term memory loss, so I can't remember facts that long. hehe...

Next post will still be about the mining field. Yes, I have much to share, told you, you won't be bored in Sovereign Hill!! Next post will be on Candle Making, $80,000 Gold Pour, the once-a-day Redcoat Soldier as well as the random shops I went into.

Stay Tune!! :)