Panning for Gold at Sovereign Hill 
Travelling during this Covid Pandemic you certainly have to keep your options open. Our original plan was to travel to South Australia (SA) and then work our way along the coast before returning home. However, as the SA government decided to make their visitors have a negative Covid test before arriving and then another one as soon as you crossed the border, we decided to skip it this time as we were afraid we would get stuck just across the border in SA for a few days whilst we awaited our results…. Well, Victoria didn’t require anything so our plans changed and we decided to start the holiday with a trip to Ballarat and Sovereign Hill.
On the morning of our departure from Albury we got caught in some very heavy rain however we managed to outrun it so by the time we arrived in Daylesford, the weather was overcast but clear. We had a takeaway lunch at the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens where both Xander and Eloise run up and down the tower a few times.
We proceeded afterwards to visit the Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve, where allegedly you’re encouraged to bring your water bottle to fill with some great mineral water from springs with names such as Soda, Sulphur, Locano, Wyuna etc. We were a bit excited until we tasted the first spring…. imagine a bad batch of soda water that has stayed inside a metal container for about 200 years and you’re close. We wrote it off thinking it was just one of the springs however, every single one of the springs were the same, and yes, we tried to let the water run to rinse the taps first, but alas, still the same terrible flavour. On the upside, we found a small Echidna so it wasn’t a complete failure.
After this we left Daylesford and started driving towards Ballarat, on the way encountering some more heavy rain and by the time we got to Ballarat it was really coming down. We drove to our accomodation, the Sovereign Hill Hotel, checked in and waited for the rain to stop. This didn’t really happen but at least it wasn’t as heavy when we left to find a place to eat. We found a Vietnamese restaurant and were just about to order when all the lights went out, looking outside we saw that the entire block was out, traffic lights, cinema, all! Well, we left and got back into our car and as luck would have it we found another Vietnamese restaurant around the corner (we had a craving) that had its light on and served a decent meal.
The next morning we were a little fearful that the weather would completely spoil our time at Sovereign Hill, but although there was some drizzle early on, by the time they opened at 10.00 it had cleared up a bit. Now, one of the positives of staying at the Sovereign Hill Hotel is that you have your own entrance and don’t have to line up. So off we went and it was quite the experience, not only does everything look like it comes straight from the gold rush era, but all staff are dressed accordingly and also stay in character throughout the day.
We had a great day experiencing a lot of different activities such as Gold Panning, Candy making, Gold Smelting, Candle making and also horse carriage rides and two different mines. The first mine had you sitting down in a small train carriage and took you into the darkness, a I mean darkness, you couldn’t see your hand in front of you, made for a very eary feeling but also very exiting. We did get some rain during the day but by the time it had arrived, we had done most outdoor experiences that we were interested in doing/seeing and focused our time on the inside activities. Before we knew it, it was almost 5.00pm and closing time at which point we returned via our own enter/exit to our hotel.
That night we went out and had a big meal with some good drinks at a venue that was just re-opening that day since their X-Mas break. We had a great time in Ballarat, the town centre itself has some beautiful heritage buildings showcasing Victoria’s colonial heritage and when you add in Sovereign Hill, you have plenty to keep you occupied, we’ll sure be back!
