Day 5 Thursday 14/9/2023 Daylesford, light cloud 8 – 20

A bright sunny morning. This is a perfect spot for strolling, and this time I walk to the eastern end of the lake to the mineral spring and it tastes good. There’s an old moss-covered bridge, an avenue of elms, and a history board depicting bathers on the lake in the 1920’s. In the background of the photo is the easily recognisable house that I sketched yesterday. Jubilee Lake was built as a reservoir in the late 1860’s and was a popular swimming spot until Lake Daylesford* was built in 1929.

The golfers of our group play a round up at Hepburn Springs. They bog the golf cart then spray poor old Silicon with mud when getting the cart back out again.

It’s a delightful drive out to Trentham East and the Pig & Whistle Pub where we meet Elle for lunch. She lives not far from here, but her motorhome ‘Betty’ is garaged in Geelong. Rather than gallop about the state picking it up and dropping it off it is easier just to meet us here for lunch. And what a charming pub it is. We sit out in the beer garden in the sun amongst the vegie beds. The meal is large and delicious, and if you’re wondering, the Guinness pie and the Parmie are delicious. Oh, and I don’t want to take the possum jumper off.

On our way back we have a walk around the little town of Trentham and check out the facilities at the ‘free’ camp at the recreation grounds. A few large kangaroos are grazing in the paddock behind.

Back at camp Happy Hour is somewhat low key after the huge meal, though we do manage to sing Happy Birthday to Three Pete.

Accom: $32.50

Fuel: $44.80 (223.9) and $53.21 (214.9c/L)

*Note: We used to come to Daylesford for summer holidays when I was a kid. The campground was on Lake Daylesford and the excitement each day was walking through the gully sampling the water from each spring. They all tasted quite different. We’d fill swing top Marchants soft drink bottles and as the weeks went by the bottles would become more stained by the minerals. Brown bottles were a badge of honour, denoting long term campers.

Because the major highways bypass Daylesford, the main street still looks much the same as it did way back then.