Day 2 Tuesday 1/2/22, Castlemaine, cooler

El Prado races into town to the Lyal Eales store. Any campers visiting Western Victoria could easily find themselves in a campers paradise in these stores which are dotted about the larger towns in this area. His camp chair has broken and he is in need of a part, he returns with the replacement part and a tube of Locktite to keep his nuts in order.

We walk across the road to the historic Mill for coffee at Das Kaffeehaus. Instantly we wish we hadn’t already had breakfast as the meals look superb and Toothless makes short work of frankfurters and goulash. The coffee is good too as they roast their own.

Afterwards we walk around town and pick up a curry pie from Grist Bakery and a vanilla slice (Snot Block) for El Prado. The Prado’s spend the afternoon in Woodend checking on the construction of their new home, while I drive over to Chewton to photograph the old buildings in view of sketching a few. Originally known as Forest Creek this tiny town once boasted 14 pubs and 10 quartz crushing mills. Walking the town reveals some unusual buildings. A portable prison cell, a church called Primitive, a very small town hall and a very large pub, The Red Hill Hotel.

Back at camp it’s time for a drink at the Shedshaker Brewery across the road followed by happy hour under the tree. A breeze springs up sending us indoors for dinner. While Woody hits the hay again I watch a fabulous TV show about birdwatching in Melbourne…did you know that there are 140 different species of birds in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Of course the other feature of the show was the ‘bird famous’ Werribee sewerage farm which has been protected because so many birds fly there from the Northern hemisphere. Siberia to the….no I’m not going to touch that one there are far too many jokes.

Accom: $49.00