Eureka Day 3 Ballarat to Bendigo. The best laid plans of mice and men.

Eureka Day 3 Ballarat to Bendigo. The best laid plans of mice and men.

The plan was to leave for the train station with enough time to catch the bus and then explore the city of Bendigo for the entire afternoon. My plans did not work out quite like that at all as I did have little problems and I would not call them huge, but it would mean my movements would be restricted to the local area instead of being able to go far and wide.

I had some biscuits for a pre breakfast snack with my morning coffee and I was wanting to leave after 830am for my bus. I was feeling slow due to muscles being sore from all the walking I had been doing and really was not wanting to walk into town with the bag on my back. I don’t think I could walk up one more hill as my body might not want to try that at all. Once checked out I asked the lady to get a taxi for me and for some reason the system wouldn’t connect to the taxi service. It took several tries for the lady to get hold of the taxi and order one for me. It came alright and the guy was talkative, which didn’t bother me too much at all. Once at the train station I ordered the coach to Bendigo as I knew it would be around an hour and half trip. Before I got near the bus I had a sandwich from a local shop and the bread was a little stale. I was hungry so didn’t complain that much as it was food in my belly.

The trip on the bus was pretty uneventful and I did see more than I usually do. We did pass the Ballarat old cemetery and got a good view of some brick silo towers that I have no idea what they were, but they did get my interest. I could have walked anywhere in town and maybe not see everything I was wanting to see. Shock, horror I did not have my nose in the book the entire time I was on the bus. I was looking out of the window the entire time. We did not pass through the town of Clunes as we took the backroads and avoided the town along with several other bigger ones that could have been interesting to ride through. I realised at one stop that we were supposed to be wearing seatbelts and I had not noticed there were any at the seat. I learnt something when I got off the bus at Bendigo and found it really was cold there. Finding where I was wanting to go was really easy, easier than Ballarat and I never got lost once finding the hostel. At the door I found I could not check in until 5pm and no one was there to let me in so I could leave my bag somewhere. I waited for around 40 mins after knocking and one phone call before wandering off into the town. I found a pie shop for lunch at the Bendigo mall along with a coffee. I did a short touristy walk through the Pall Mall area as I had a heavy bag and could not really go very far. Once I found Maccas I stopped for a coffee and stayed there for several hours reading my book while charging my phone with my zenbook.

After my long stay in Maccas and most likely becoming part of the furniture I headed back to the hostel and it was still closed for the day and I had around an hour to wait. I rang the guy on a whim and got hold of him. He told me the code to get in and I sat in one of the rooms waiting for his arrival. Once he came I sorted out where I was staying and found there were not that many people at all in the hostel and I could count them on one hand. I had Subway for dinner and sorted out my washing though it will be cold so some of it will dry outside and several items are inside to dry as there was no dryer. The owner might be a nice guy, but I don’t think I would stay here on my next trip to the city. I would hate to imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer instead of winter. I was a little cold, but not too cold. After the washing I walked outside with just a tshirt and no jumper, but I doubt I could do this tomorrow morning as I would be frozen solid. Today was cloudy with no rain, but there was plenty of fog on the road and a local church in Bendigo was covered in the thick fog, which tells you how cold it was. The strange thing was that at night there was no fog at all and it was light up like a Christmas tree. Tomorrow when it comes I will be running around with a pie or to in town. I want to visit a historic cemetery and do a bit more in town like catch the tram if it is not too costly or do a mine tour.