The day dawned bright and sunny, although a bit cool. It was 13 degrees at 8am as I lined up at Apex Park, Wangaratta for my next Parkrun. Thankfully this location was right next door to the caravan park so it was all very easy. As always, the locals and visitors alike were very friendly at Parkrun – I met a lady from Dubbo and spoke to a local man (seen below behind me) who thanked me for being his ‘pacer’. We both agreed that we ‘paced’ each other quite successfully, passing each other along the way – my time of 38:17 was almost a minute faster than I had ever done! He was happy with his time too … and why wouldn’t he be … he said he is in his mid 70s! When I walked home I noticed a Farmers Market in the park – Gaz went back to check it out and stocked up on fruit and other delectable items, including, he says, the best coffee of the trip.
After a leisurely breakfast and shower, Gaz and I headed off for our day in Beechworth. It was a lovely half hour drive and we started by checking out the old standby of the tourist information centre. They were extraordinarily helpful and plied us with maps, suggestions, and entry tickets to a number of museums and attractions. We set off to walk the streets and saw many old buildings including the courthouse where Ned Kelly was held initially before his trial in Melbourne, the telegraph office, the gold office, and many more.
All this wandering and reading of exhibits took its toll and we were soon looking for somewhere to sit down and have some lunch. We chanced upon a great, somewhat trendy café and ordered sandwiches and a Sicilian Apple cake for dessert. The food was to die for. Gary said his sandwich was the best sandwich he can ever remember having … ever! Mine was great too, though I shy away from an ‘ever’ tag. I will say the dessert was pretty special though. All in all, a great lunch.
We finished walking around the rest of the town and ended up at the Burke Museum, named for Burke as in “Burke and Wills”. Burke had been the police constable in Beechworth for 4 years in the 1850s and was much loved and respected. When he took on his exploration role that, as we know, did not end well (in 1861), the town’s people wanted to commemorate him and the Library and Museum has been called the Burke Museum since the 1870s! There was a lot of cool stuff there.
We stopped briefly on the way out of town at an old bridge and gorge where we were told they had re-directed the flow of the river during the gold rush to create the waterfall - very cool.
We then decided to check out the Pennyweight Winery on the edge of town, nothing to do with the name lol. Gaz bought a white port he quite liked. Ironically Gaz had taken the car into town while I was at Parkrun and washed it … the winery was on a dirt road and the car got absolutely filthy – you couldn’t see out the back window. Who would have thought that a tiny town like Beechworth would have a car wash, but sure enough, within a couple of hundred metres of the the winery road, we found a car wash. Poor Qashqai got washed twice in one day – that’s about her annual allowance lol.
Arriving back at the caravan park about 3:30pm I was ready for a swim. Gaz found the races on the TV which kept him happy. I read for a while, and then decided to go for a bike ride. I found the Rail Trail leaving from Apex Park and rode for about 40 minutes or so. It was hot and I hadn’t taken water, otherwise I may have gone further – pretty easy cycling.
When I returned, I grabbed another quick swim – hey, it was still 32 degrees – and then we prepared dinner – yummy BBQ with salad and potatoes. Very pleasant evening eating outside.
Maz and Kev had also had a big day – they went to some farm gates – olives, cheese etc as well as touring an historic homestead built by Hume for his sister in law. I think they also saw some Chinese gardens somewhere. Anyway, everyone was pretty weary so euchre was postponed and an early night was on the cards … get it, on the cards? More exploring tomorrow.
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