The Fiedlers 2012 Gap Year: Ballarat 23rd January to 2nd Feb

We have finally made the move into the big, wide land of Australia.....

to Ballarat!!

View Stage 1 - Ferntree Gully to Ballarat in a larger map

We decided to make a trip here to catch up with my cousin and his family and loved it so much we had to practically drag ourselves away after 10 days.

They have a beautiful 10 acre property which they have often made available to us over the years and this time even allowed our big whopper of a van to take up residence.

With the school holidays nearly over, we made the most of the quiet tourist areas and visited Sovereign Hill, where the boys couldn't get enough of panning for gold and Molly took her shoes off and went wading!

Ballarat Wildlife Sanctuary was our next outing. It was terrific there. The kids got to pat wombats, snakes and turtles. Kasper even saw his favourite echidnas up close. We also got to see the feeding of Tassie Devils and Alligators. One of the highlights was a boxing match we caught between two kangaroos!!!

We then drove past Kryle Castle but that is closed!

At my cousin's dam the kids put their yabbie nets in and managed to catch about 10-we put them back though as we think that was all they had :o)

Lot's of fishing was done and Ben had a ball. He is really catching the fishing bug hard. He can't pass a camping store without checking out their fishing section nowadays!!

Near where our caravan was parked there was an old enamel bath sitting under an apple tree which had been used for a cows drink trough. I decided one of my aims for our stay was to clean out the bath and enjoy an outdoor bath complete with bubbles- made a lovely picture in my head. On one of the last days I finally managed to complete the cleaning part and in popped Molly and Kasper to sort of fulfil the last part of my dream. It was so cute to see them.