Day 29 23/02/12

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to Ballarat we go!
I woke up to another beautiful, crisp, clear morning and took the opportunity to do some yoga by the lake.

Yoga by the lake

Then I was approached by this older lady who was up for a bit of chat and was quite interested in Freda as she's keen to do some travel too once some inheritance money comes through.
We had a good old chat and as we were leaving she said she had something for me and raced back to her car.
She said she was going to give it to a friend who she didn't catch her before she left so she handed me an envelope.
My initial reaction was "Oh God, this crazy old lady's not trying to give me money is she?" But I looked inside and it was just a newspaper clipping about Tasmania - thank goodness! Seeing an opportunity to get rid of another Common Trees cd, I fetched one out of the car and gave it to her - she seemed quite chuffed....wait til she hears it!! haha
So I drove about 2 hours to get to Ballarat - went through Castlemaine and Daylesford, didn't stop as I wasn't hungry and there didn't seem to be all that much to look at just passing through.
I got to Ballarat and soon discovered it too is afflicted with the curse of the parking metres in the CBD. So I found a place to park and went for a walk around the CBD and to the tourist info place.
Isn't it funny how you get a feeling for a place when you first arrive - it may be accurate or not depending on the mood you're in when you arrive, what the weather's like, a good or bad thing that may happen to you but after spending the last couple of days in Bendigo, Ballarat just has a more dirty, city and negative vibe than Bendigo.
Maybe I'm just talking shit but they're the first feelings after a few hours in town.

Downtown Ballarat

I eventually found the Botanical Gardens which are quite nice and next to the lake so settled down for some lunch, reading and writing, as you do.

Journal - check, Pen - check, Book - check.

Ballarat Botanical Gardens...better than Bendigo's...not that it's a competition or anything...

Within the gardens is "Prime Minister Avenue" which features a bronze bust of all the Prime Ministers of Australia from Barton to Rudd.
The birds obviously weren't a fan of Malcolm Fraser's work:

Putting shit on a politician

>Insert topical political caption here<

This bust was a little bit scary:

Scary Bust aka 'The Torri Spelling'

After dinner I went to the Bridge Hotel which I noticed on a poster in a shop window that a Jam night was to be had tonight.
It wasn't much of a jam night with one guy playing an acoustic guitar and singing for the entire time I was there.
I felt a little out of place with all these uni students in there so made my exit on sunset.
I drove around the lake to my parking spot and jumped out to take a pic of the sunset. This photo doesn't do it justice:

Lake Wendouree

I then drove to my parking spot for the night overlooking the lake and settled in.
For some reason I felt really creeped out tonight about the parking spot. A couple of cars around me came and left, and the water lapping around the lake was making me imagine these sea monsters stepping out of the lake and attacking me (yes, I have an overactive imagination at times!) but when the street lights went out at about midnight I lost my nerve and hightailed it outta there. I didn't even stop to put some shorts on so here I am driving around Ballarat in the middle of the night in just my jockeys and I'm thinking, "How the hell am I gonna explain this to the cops if I get pulled up?!?". Anyway, I soon found a spot to park which felt a lot better and settled in for some (sea-monster free) sleep.