Finally not in Bendigo!

Heading away from Bendigo again we went through Katamatite - which sounds like a superhero mineral - oh no that's Kryptonite! We stopped in a park for lunch after checking out a couple of painted ablution buildings. Our Wedgetail camper was parked next to a large Wedgetail eagle sculpture.

There’s very lifelike wooden carvings too.

The local cemetery held many interesting graves as usual including this one for a jockey who died in 1909 at the 'Muckatah' racetrack.

And more silo art from Katamatite too.

In Shepparton was this action packed bronze statue of Brigadier Bourchier who was in command of the 4th Light Horse Regiment in WWI.

The little town of Stanhope has a huge, beautiful mural of the Montevideo Maru Tragedy which happened in July 1942 - it was a Japanese ship being used as a troop carrier and which was torpedoed by a US submarine. Unfortunately there were also POWs on board. It's estimated that 845 military personnel and 208 civilians died in the tragedy.

We tried to visit a sculpture garden but could only find the one remaining sculpture!

Our next camp was Mount Franklin - a spectacular tree covered hill which hides the flat camp area. It's an extinct volcanic crater with very steep sides making for a great walk with a rewarding view.

One of our fellow campers even had a pet goat - apparently she had rescued it from the roadside in northwest WA and it was happily travelling in the camper van along with two doggos!

Nearby Daylesford was a return visit for us. There’s so much to see and do around here including the 'Amazing Mill Market' which holds the most most weird and wonderful stuff for sale - definitely something for everyone!

Sunday market at the old Daylesford train station also features train rides along some pretty scenery - a gentle pace of travel.

Another sculpture garden in neighbouring Franklinford which we thought had probably become the home of the ones we couldn’t find earlier.

Newstead also has an old train station which has been beautifully restored. Opposite is the unsurprisingly named Railway Hotel.

We took a bush walk near Hepburn Springs to see a waterfall created from the diversion of a creek and tunnels dug by Chinese gold miners in the 1860s. At certain times and with enough rainfall it becomes a blowhole too. Fortunately for John it was not a blowhole kind of day!

This area is also home to many families who migrated from northern Italy and Switzerland several decades ago.

This old building looks like it’s been transported here from Italy.

One of those pioneering families was the Tinetti family. Today they’re better known for 'Cricket Willow'. Ian Tinetti runs Cricket Willow in Shepherds Flat just near Hepburn Springs. There’s nothing that could entice me to take any interest in cricket (yawn) but I could see why this place would excite those who do have such a passion.

The most interesting point for me was that only female willow trees (Salix Alba var. Caerulea) are used to make cricket bats!

Here’s John getting some pertinent cricket bat knowledge from Mr Tinetti.

Then I saw this collection of ANZAC biscuit tins - finally something worthwhile looking at!

We finished off that day with a refreshing beverage from the Hepburn Springs Brewing Co.