Eureka Day 5 Still in Bendigo

Eureka Day 5 Still in Bendigo

Today was another day in Bendigo. Last night was interesting indeed. I was reading a book in bed and some guy tries to get into the hostel. He was knocking on the door and doing something out the front. I happen to have a sliding door so he was knocking asking to be let in and for 5 minutes I was ignoring him and then he mentioned a bag that was on the bed. He couldn’t see it as the bag was on a bed and the curtain was closed. Since he knew the bag was there I let him in and told him that I would have let him keep knocking as I didn’t know who he was. The second clue that showed me he sort of belonged was the door code. He mentioned this was a Friday night thing as he would crash at the hostel for the night. He promised that he would not do anything untoward me and that he would be up early to leave. I think he had been drinking or was on something as it was like he was sleep walking trying to open the sliding door, but he was gone when I got up around 7am.

I did find some food in the morning and after getting some grub into me I was on my way towards where they did the tramways tour. The day before I had a lead on where I could get a decent pastie in town. I was wanting pictures of the Town Hall and did find several other things along the way like the dedication outside of the library to the Cornish Miners in the area. The historical society did seem to have a really old building as their base unless I was on the wrong track and it was a sample. There were several nice oldish houses along the way too. Once I made my way inside the tramways museum I had some time before I needed to go on the tour. Coffees were being made for some others who were going to catch the tram and they were all happy.

The Tramway museum guide was interesting and I found it to be enjoyable as we were taken around the individual trams as many of them were either over 100 years or approaching that age. They had been lovingly restored to working order and there were different models too. The  tram people were all volunteers who restored old trams and are a non profit organisation so worked on funding from the government. The tram depot had been closed in the 1970s and the government wanted to sell the trams and didn’t think the volunteers could run the trams on the streets. They proved they could do the job and the maintenance of the trams keeps skills alive that would have been lost today. There are many stories about the trams like how they were found in peoples gardens or people lived in them. One tram the government said another state could have and the volunteers moved to stop it from happening as it would mean other places would want the trams, but the volunteers found one service number that was found locally was a sister tram so that was restored and given to Adelaide. Other trams were found to be in such good condition that their patterns and colour work could be replicated on other trams in the fleet. Once the tour was over I retired to the shop so I could have a coffee and spoke with the local volunteers who mentioned Ballarat was the coldest, but I said Bendigo was at the moment.

The time had come for me to head out to the bus so I could head to Strathsfieldsaye for Jeanette Purkis’ book launch in the town. I had topped up my myki card and found that the bus fare was not needed as the swipe machine was not working so it was a free trip out that way. I was happy about the free trip and was wondering where to get off and getting worried. I didn’t need to as the area was further than I had realised. I did get off the bus at a stop I thought was where I need to and ended up walking to the other side of town finding on the way the old town hall that some locals later called poppa Bills. I was early for the talk, but went out to help Beck who was one of the organisers, well I got coffee and went for a wander again. The bakery had no fingerbuns, but I had to settle for lamingtons instead. The talk went off really well and I did get my book signed and met a few other people who I was friends with on Facebook. I did find it interesting listening to other people talk about what the area was like and talk about aspie sort of stuff that I don’t usually talk about. It was mentioned by several people that I should visit a cemetery called whitecliffs with graves close to the road. Maybe next time I will do that. When we went to the pub I heard they were train mad and my thoughts were that it could be because the town did at one point have a train station in the area. I cant remember when the train and station were removed. I kind of surprised the locals though I seem to do that no matter where I seem to travel.  The pub had a huge handburger challenge if people are game to try it and all I had was the pork belly roast as it was different. I had vegies and mash with it so they fixed me right up.

Tomorrow is the day I head to Melbourne and I will be there for several days before heading back to the north coast and to work. Hopefully to warmer climates too.