Day Fourteen - Ballarat to Melbourne

We decided we had enough time to return to Sovereign Hill for a couple of hours before starting our drive to Melbourne. We headed straight to the blacksmith again and were just in time to catch the last half of his demonstration talk. Tim bought a souvenir from him and we moved off to the confectioner. Luck was on our side as we were amongst the last to squeeze in to watch the sweet making demonstration, which was different from yesterday's. I hadn't managed to fit in yesterday so was pleased to be able to catch it today. It was one of my favourite demonstrations and the sample at the end was much appreciated too! One last bowl at at the bowling alley and one last photo and we had to go.

The trip to Melbourne was fairly uneventful, although there seemed to be many more hills than I ever remember. In Melbourne proper, it was a little hairy traversing the narrow lanes once we were off the freeway. 

I'm not sure I should write much about the caravan park. Lets just say it makes me appreciate the wonderful free camps we've been staying at along the way.  Our site is only big enough for our van and most of our car and only if we park it sideways. The bed ends can't be used though because the site isn't long enough for us to put pegs in and we could pass a cup of sugar to about 14 people without any of us leaving our sites. We do have nice clean amenities though, and a camp kitchen with a shared fridge/freezer which we have made use of.

After setting ourselves up, erecting the annexe this time due to our longer stay, we headed off to the local woolies to stock up for the Easter weekend.
That done, and dinner eaten, we decided to head in to the city to give the kids a glimpse of Melbourne by night. 

I think they were suitably impressed. There were about eleventy billion people and cars about and a couple of major roads closed for roadworks. It sure made for some interesting navigational challenges. Flinders St Station had them amazed at the size and they were impressed at the many beautiful churches.

The difference in architecture between Melbourne and Brisbane was stark and the trams held Sarah captivated. She spent some serious thought on working out how the overhead tram power lines worked at intersections. The traffic was, well, insane. I can now see why the slogan on Victorian number plates has been changed to Stay Alert, Stay Alive!