This is the last part of a series of posts about our mini-vacation in the Victorian countryside. After a whole day of driving through a scenic route that takes us from Ballarat through the small town of Ararat and up the Grampians, we finally arrive in Horsham.

As you probably know by now (if you’ve been reading my blog long enough), I am computer dependent. Make that Internet dependent. My main source of income is made through the Internet, and much of my free time is spent on the Internet. The same can be said for my sister and her brother-in-law, though they have more productive things to do in their spare time (if they have any). Doing research online is second nature to me. I hardly ever go anywhere without Googling it first, and reading all I can about it. One of my biggest frustrations was finding a place for us to stay in Horsham.

Unlike Ballarat, where I quickly found a site with a listing and links to various caravan parks in the area, there was none in Horsham. When I did find a handful though, none were as close to the venue where brother-in-law will be teaching, as Horsham Caravan Park. And they don’t have a website. Not knowing the facilities they have or amenities they offer or even how the park look like, we made the call and booked ahead.

We were lucky we did because when we got there, the place was full. Not surprising, because for AU$75 per night, we got a cabin that can fit 3 adults and 2 small kids, a refrigerator, a grill and stove, airconditioning, heater, and an ensuite toilet and bath. What they don’t have are sheets for the beds, blankets for the cold nights, not even pillows! We were adviced to bring the beddings when we called, but weren’t told about the pillows. For a small fee, we were able to “rent” 5 VERY thin pillows.

The Horsham Caravan Park is run by the local YMCA. Apart from the cabins, there are also numerous powered and unpowered sites for caravans, as well as camping sites. The caravan park was very rustic, a complete opposite of Lake Wendouree Tourist Park, which looked and feel like the gated villages back in Manila. The upside though, is that apart from the great price, it is sandwiched between the Wimmera River and the Horsham Botanical Garden. Since the park personnel knew we had kids with us, they gave is the cabin nearest the Botanical Garden’s barbeque area and playground.

Another great thing about Horsham Caravan Park’s location is that it is in Firebrace street — Horsham’s main street. Though we are at the other end of the city centre, being at Firebrace made it easy for us to navigate through the small town (thanks in part to the map the tourist centre gave us). After dropping of brother-in-law at work, we drove around to see what Horsham had to offer. With the shopping centre properly scrutinized, we delved into the inner streets and made our way to Apex Island.

A map of Horsham shows this small island in the Wimmera River. Marked as Apex Adventure Island, it piqued our interest. With the map in my hands, I felt a frisson of excitement; I love maps. I love reading them, and I love navigating with them. Even if we ended up in streets we weren’t supposed to be in. But I still managed to get us to where we wanted to go. We spot a footbridge, parked and scrambled out of the car. Apex Island, here we come!

We crossed the wooden footbrige and came down on a small scrap of land. Is this it? The so-called adventure island? There was another bridge crossing over to the other side, and we went over that as well. It turned out that it wasn’t Apex island; it was just a small lagoon that wasn’t properly marked in the map. Our efforts wasn’t in vain though, as there were ducks in the water. As soon as we crossed the bridge, the ducks started paddling towards us. This must have been a favorite spot for tourists and locals alike, as the ducks seem to be expecting us to shower them with bread.

A few minutes passed, with us humans just cooing at how cute the ducks were, the ducks gave up and started paddling away. We took that as our cue to go as well, and made our way back to the bridge. As we were about to go up the first bridge, I noticed this one bird (a purple swamphen, I was told) who was following us. We got back to the little island, and he was still following us! Up over the second bridge, and he was still there.

“Mommy, it’s still following us,” said my niece. “Tell it to stop following us!”

“The bird doesn’t understand our language,” my sister replied. “It understands duck language. Maybe if we quack he’ll go away.” So my sister did this funny imitation of a duck, and with some wing flapping and some wild quacking, the bird finally went back to the lagoon. Probably thought we were loony.

Stalking birds aside, Horsham was a pleasant and very quiet town. After a day spent in the playgounds and the small shopping centre, we ended it with dinner at one of the local Chinese restaurants. We stumbled upon two Chinese restaurants, standing side by side in one of the smaller streets. Which one do we enter? The one where there are more people, of course.

Not a lot of people were dining inside, but there where plenty of people coming in an ordering food for take away. The dishes we ordered tasted good enough. Not quite like Chinatown, but passable for a place housing the only other Asian we saw in Horsham. This small sleepy town may not be near the top of your list of places to see in Victoria, but its has its charms (stalker birds included). Besides, how can you pass up a place that has a Chinese garden restaurant called “Toy’s” that has its own mini-golf course and a great wall of China within its complex?

The four-part series has ended with this post, and the contest for the Lonely Planet travel journal ends soon! Quick, you still have a couple of hours to whip up your winning entry!

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This is part 3 of a series of posts about our four-day trip to the Victorian countryside. Leaving Ballarat, we head on to Horsham, through a scenic tour of Ararat and The Grampians.

We left Ballarat early. After a quick stop at the bank and stocking up on provisions at the nearest Aldi, we drove under the Arch of Victory, passing the elm trees planted along the road, commemorating all the soldiers from Ballarat, who died in the war.

Though Horham is less than 200 kilometers away from Ballarat (about 2 1/2 hour’s drive), it took us almost a whole day’s worth of driving to arrive at our new home for the night. You see, instead of driving directly to Horsham, we took a scenic drive that took us through the Wind farm, the small town of Ararat, and Halls Gap, where we were introduced to Gariwerd.

The Grampians is this rocky mountain range, whose peaks are made of sandstone. It was believed that 300 million years ago, the area east of the ranges were underwater. Hence the presence of sand on mountain ranges that are 250 miles inland. The Grampians was given its name by Sir Thomas Mitchell after the Grampian Mountains in his native Scotland. The native Aboriginals though, already had a name for it: Gariwerd.

Hall’s Gap is the town closest to Gariwerd. It is the starting point for many tourists who come to explore the Grampians. If and when you find yourself in Halls Gap, make the tourist information office your first stop. Here you can get a map of the various loookout points offering the best views of Gariwerd. Before driving up the long and winding mountain road though, there’s a couple more stops you need to do.

First is a visit to the Brambuk the National Park and Cultural Centre. The area around Gariwerd has been home to the Djab Wurrung and the Jardwadjali tribe of Aboriginal Australians. The Brambuk cultural center preserves the history culture of is indegenous people in the centre through various exhibits. A must-watch before heading up the mountains are the two films shown at the centre’s Dreaming Theatre.

The ‘Gariwerd Creation Story’ depicts the Aboriginal legend of Tchingal the giant emu and War the crow and the formation of the Grampians/Gariwerd mountains.

‘Gariwerd a Cultural Landscape’ illustrates the geology, flora and fauna, Aboriginal and European history and the various uses of the Grampians.

Source: Brambuk - the national park and cultural centre

The two films gives you a better understanding (and hopefully, better appreciation) of the area. The AU$5 (adult) ticket is for both movies. The Dreaming Theatre is not just a theatre; there are displays and models on each side of the room, and giant emu. The giant emu was enough to freak out two adults (me and my sister). Imagine how my niece reacted while the movie was playing, and the emu’s red eyes started glowing. My niece didn’t want to finish the movie anymore, so I was left alone inside the small theatre with the giant emu. Luckily, the lights remained off during the 2nd movie.

With the giant emu behind us (but unfortunately, not forgotten), we hopped back into the car and drove back to Halls Gap’s centre for some ice cream. While enjoying my spearmint chocolate chip and Oreo cookie ice cream on waffle cone, I noticed the sign outside the ice cream shop. Now available, it says, are milk shakes, thick shakes and…spiders?! Noticing my apparent shock, my brother-in-law quickly explained that spiders is this drink wherein they put a scoop of ice cream on a glass of lemonade, much like a rootbeer float. Hmm, spiders. Must try that next time.

Suitably cooled off by the ice cream, we got into the car and started the drive up Gariwerd. Excuse the cliche, but it really was a long and winding road. And we only went to the two nearest lookout points. We have been driving since 9am, and it was already 4pm by then. All of us were tired and well on our way to cranky. The views were worth the long drive though. You get a clear view of the tops of the other mountain ranges and the surrounding countryside. Exhaustion seem to fade away as you take in the beauty of the Grampians.

Finishing with our day’s to-see list (and finishing off my camera’s battery), we drive on towards Horsham. As we were driving through the countryside, we have been seeing signs warning drivers of the presence of kangaroos in the area. I’ve never seen a kangaroo on the road, save for roadkill, so it was a bit of a thrill to see one standing off the side of the road. My brother-in-law slowed down the car to a full stop. The kangaroo, probably sensing that we were stopping to let him cross the road (maybe they’ve learned to stop, look, and listen before crossing the street?), hopped on to the otherside. It was the perfect shot: the asphalt running a straight line, and the kangaroo with its perfect jumping form. And me on the front passenger seat holding a camera with a dead battery. To make it worse, there was a second kangaroo who crossed the road after the first, ensuring that you get a decent picture. Bah!

Finally, we rolled into Horsham. We booked another cabin in a caravan park that I found online, but does not have a website. The caravan park was definitely much…rugged as our previous accomodation. Then again, there was a huge price discrepancy as well. Nevertheless, after a long day on the road, it was a welcome respite.

Only one day left in this series, and one day left until the travel journal contest ends! Have you sent in your entry yet?

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This is the second post in a series about our four-day trip in the Victorian countryside. The trip takes us from Melbourne to Ballarat, from Ballarat to the Grampians then on to Horsham.

We woke up fairly early, since my brother-in-law has to be at work by 8:30am. Thanks to Google Maps, the accomodation we picked was only 2 minutes away from the venue where he was set to conduct a seminar. This gave us time to have breakfast and spend some time in the playground, while waiting for the park administration office to open so we can borrow a flat iron.

After driving brother-in-law to work, we headed back to Cabin E14 at Lake Wendouree Tourist Park to plan our day. While the kids watch Angelina Ballerina, my sister and I studied the Ballarat map, familiarizing ourselves with the. High in our priority was to find a supermarket for additional provision, as well as the Rivers store. The kids played with the contents of their luggage before leaving Melbourne, and it left my niece without any shirt to wear. Armed with our map, we left the little house and set out for Ballarat’s city centre.

Ballarat was an old gold mining town; its prosperous past evident in the sprawling estates fronting Lake Wendouree and the magnificent buildings, carefully preserved lining up Ballarat’s main roads. Ballaraat, as it is also known, is derived from an Aboriginal words “balla” and “arat” that translated to camping or resting place. True enough, Ballarat did become a place where everybody, from other parts of Australia and other parts of the world, came to rest — and pan for gold — in the 1850’s, when gold was discovered in Ballarat’s soil. Soon, there were 20,000 diggers in the shafts and goldfields, all searching for the metal that would bring them prosperity.

And prosper they did. Approximately 200,000 ounces of gold were found in Ballarat’s goldfields, including the Welcome Stranger, one of the world’s biggest gold nugget ever found. Weighing 2316 troy ounces or 72.04 kg and measuring measuring 61 cm by 31 cm (24in x 12in), the Welcome Stranger was discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates just a mere 5 centimeters (2 inches) under the ground. Deason and Oates took the nugget to the London Chartered Bank (Dunolly), where they were paid a whopping £19,068.

Of course, as history would tell us, good things almost always come to an end. With the rise of diggers coming in from all over the world, the government imposed regulations and licences for all the miners. This led to the Eureka stockade, the miner’s rebellion againts the government.

The gold rush and the Eureka rebellion is an important part of Ballarat’s history, and they preserved it in the best museum I have ever been to: Sovereign Hill. Unlike other stuffy museums, where all the pieces are behind glass or cordoned off, far from the visitor’s dirty hands, Sovereign Hill encourages you to be a part of the museum, and experience history. An interactive museum, once you have entered Sovereign Hill, you are quickly transported to the 1850’s. The 25-hectare museum is made to depict life in the 1850’s, when gold was found in Ballarat. Here you will see the houses where the miners and their families live, the equipment they use for mining, and the kind of life they had. You are encouraged to pan for fold in the small stream, go down a mine shaft with the Cornish brothers who discovered the Welcme Nugget, join a carriage ride around the town, practice your calligraphy at the one-room school, or have your picture taken wearing period clothing. To complete the experience, costumed volunteers are scattered around various attractions, ready to answer your questions about Ballarat’s history.

Loaded with 2 big shopping bags filled with shoes (don’t ask), we head back to the cabin to unload our loot and prepare some snacks for a picnic. After picking up brother-in-law, we head to the Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden is right on the bank of Lake Wendouree, which (according to the Ballarat website), “covers 40 hectares divided into three distinct zones - the central Botanical Gardens which preserves the ‘gardenesque’ style of the Victorian pleasure garden, and open parkland buffers on either side are known as the North and South Gardens.” The best part of the garden for me though, is the playground. Unlike most playground where the activities are limited to small children, this playground is for kids from age 2 to 62.

Another thing I have been looking forward to in Ballarat was seeing Lake Wendouree. To be precise, to see whether Lake Wendouree has water. When we first visited last February, the lake was completely dried up. When they went back last June, the lake was almost full of water. As summer starts, the Lake as started to dry up again. The picture on the left was taken last February, the one on the right taken this December:

After an hour in the playground and a round of ‘ccinos (mochaccino for me and my sister, cappucino for brother-in-law, babyccinos for the kids), we head back to our “little house” for a much needed rest — we have a long day of driving tomorrow.

Only three days left! Share with us your most memorable travel experience and win a Lonely Planet travel journal. Click here to find out how to join.

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I just got back from a 4-day mini-holiday in the Victorian countryside. My brother-in-law had a teaching job in Ballarat and another in Horsham so he decided to bring the whole family. This is the first post of a series about our trip to Ballarat, The Grampians and Horsham.

We started out late, leaving Melbourne at 6 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday. Ballarat is a little over 100 kilometers from Melbourne, and driving there takes about an hour and a half via the Western Highway. Though it was a Sunday, there were plenty of people on the road. Probably families headed for their country homes or students enjoying their holidays (and their new licenses).

I’ve always loved driving (or in my case, riding) around Melbourne and the outlying countryside because of the great condition of the roads, and the seemingly lack of traffic. Australia is almost the same size as mainland USA, but unlike the United States, the population of the entire country is only at 21 million (Metro Manila has about 11 million residents). This means less people in the streets, less people on the roads, just less people, period. When I first came here, I told my sister I’d love to drive in Australia, since the roads are pretty empty. She was quick to refute my argument, saying that it’s much more dangerous here. Emptier roads meant people tend to drive faster. The higher the speed, the higher the chances of a car crash, which in Manila would just mean bumping the car in front of you. I realized what she meant, when I saw a car grazing the rear bumper of another on the road to Ballarat, during the first trip we made there last February.

We were driving along the side road, looking for a fish and chips shop to buy our picnic lunch. As we wait at the intersection for a break in the traffic to go back into the main road, one car going over 100km/h grazed the left rear end bumper of another car going over 90km/h. The first car only swerved a bit, but the second car tipped to the side. Luckily for the driver, the car didn’t topple over and soon righted itself. The driver only got some minor bruises and possibly some broken bones.

Now on our second trip to Ballarat, there was another accident along the freeway. We didn’t actually see it, but it was a bit unnerving to hear about it, seeing as we passed the same stretch of road just minutes before. According to the reports, four teens were inside the car that careened of the highway, hitting a tree by the side of the road. The car burst into flames upon impact. Police and witnesses says that the car must have been travelling at 160km/h.

Road accidents aside, it was great to drive back into Ballarat. I greatly enjoyed the time whe spent there last February, albiet a short one. There were no concrete plans for this Ballarat trip, just a stop at the local Rivers branch, where we went shop crazy and bought a trunkload of shoes (well, just half, really) during our last trip. Another highlight was to check whether Lake Wendouree has dried up again (it was completely dry last February and almost full at the end of July).

After a drive around the city, we emerged from one side street, right across our home for the next two days, Lake Wendouree Tourist Park.

Coming up next: our day in Ballarat, review of Lake Wendouree Tourist Park, and driving off to our next destination.

Do you love the gentle scratching of a pencil on paper or the smooth glide of a ballpoint? Share your most unforgettable travel experience, and get a chance to win a Lonely Planet travel journal.

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I was all set to post something else, but this Cebu Pacific just came in:

Fly to Xiamen, China for as low as ONE PESO!

Visit Xiamen, famous for being an ancestral home to overseas Chinese, including some of the Philippines great Taipans.

The seat sale will run from December 10 to 16, 2007 and may be availed for travel from January 1 to March 31, 2008.

The one-way fare is exclusive of government taxes, applicable surcharges and non-refundable.

Upon checking Cebu Pacific’s website, I found out that Cebu Pacific is increasing their flight frequency to Macau.

Cebu Pacific (CEB) will expand its Manila-Macau-Manila operations from three times weekly to daily to meet rising demand.

Initially, the Manila-Macau service will have an additional Sunday flight beginning January 13, 2008 and will become a daily service on June 6, 2008.

Fares to Macau start at P1,499 one way, exclusive of taxes and surcharges.

Source: Cebupacificair.com

Cebu Pacific’s really making it hard for us NOT to travel, eh? Too bad they’re not making it easy for us to make more money.

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