Day 80 - Saturday 18 March - Around Ararat

Day 80

Saturday

18 March 2017

Ararat

Paul was up early telling me the lake was fogged in, so I did a quick check from my window to confirm it before pulling myself out of my nice warm bed, into cold clothes and out to take photos. We walked over the bridge and around the little island watching the mist lift as the sun crept further into the sky. We spotted plenty of dew covered cobwebs and fronds.

Once back there was no going to bed, so we opted to continue our walk back to the wall of the lake. It was a lovely morning even though it was cool. We checked on the angler and then returned to the van for a cook up. Yum.

With everything sorted and ready, we drove into town, stopped first for some extra photos of the town hall and shire building, secondly for groceries and then went down to the Jail House Rock festival on Alexandra Oval. It was $20 to go in the door and check things out, but you could use the pass all weekend.

We wandered around the few cars that were on display, admiring the neat trims and cool paints. Some of the cars were magic. There was even a 1950’s caravan all decked out in coke paraphernalia. We spoke to the owners of the van and two of the hot rods and they said the turnout was a little disappointing and that it was usually held in the main street, which would certainly have added to the atmosphere.

There was a large marque, where a rock and roll band was playing and plenty were dancing in their very groovy outfits. We wandered through the small number of stalls and then left, figuring we would come back tomorrow when it is supposed to be a little bigger.

It was sill only 11.30am when we left, so we made our way out to Bests Wines for a wine tasting in the old horse stables. We chatted away to the cellar door staff and a young American couple from Chicago. We enjoyed our time there and Paul picked up a bottle of shiraz.

We moved on to Seppelts winery in Great Western after this. Seppelts is a huge establishment with wine tours as well as tastings. The vineyard is known for its sparkling range so I was happy to indulge these before taking on skippers’ duties.  Paul wasn’t overly fussed with the wines on offer, preferring Bests reds.  The cellar doorman, was also the owner and he let Paul know that they will be reintroducing a Drumborg sparkling ale with the help of Pikes Brewery in the Clare valley.

We finished the wine tasting and made our way back to the van, stopping for fuel and and RBT stop. Ahh. Thankfully I blew 0.0, god knows how, but hey. I wasn’t really concerned as I had been pretty careful with how much I tried.

Once back at the van we had to change into cooler clothing, as it had warmed up dramatically. I went through all the photos from last night’s ghost tour only to be baffled by many of them. There were plenty of anomalies and they had both of us shaking our head, not being able to come up with a logical explanation.

At 4pm, Robbo joined us with his van, so we pulled up the out door chairs, grabbed our drinks and enjoyed the afternoon. Tracey joined us shortly after and over the course of the next hour we also had; Peter, Kerry, Belinda, Les, Wilbur and Sue in a circle around our van.

We were in for more laughs and good times as we regaled the beauty of the lake, the peacefulness on their doorstep. We opted to order pizzas for dinner with Les happy to collect them for us. They were delicious too.  We ate as the sun set over the lake. It was just magic. The only issue were the mozzies that invaded the van,  as I had left the light on. After spraying with bug spray, it was like a massacre had taken place with the evidence thick on the table. A good mozzie is a dead mozzie, they wouldn’t be eating us alive tonight.

By 10pm it was time for those not staying to head back home. We were so thankful that they had all made the effort to come out to the Lake and say hi and we hope that we see them all in Perth sometime.

We packed up our little camp spot, said goodnight to Robbo and Tracey and then it was lights out.