FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9     CASTLEMAINE

The steady rain of last night continued over much of today as well. It had turned quite cold, too.

I slept in a little. Was rather reluctant to get up and face the miserable morning. Eventually, with no choice, dug out my rain jacket and took Couey on her morning constitutional. With great good sense, she did not want to go far or stay out any longer than necessary, either. I dried her off with one of the several old towels we carry for such occasions, and put extra protective sheets and towels over my bed before she went back in Bus – since that was her preferred daytime sleeping area.

I spent much of the day sitting in Bus, doing quilting – hand sewing pieces of fabric together.

Castlemaine site

John phoned Telstra and bought an extra Gb of data, so he was able to play his WOW game.

After lunch, the rain eased a little, so we set out to follow the drive around historic Castlemaine, following a guide obtained from the Information Centre. It was interesting, although it would have been better to stop and look properly at some of the places featured in it, like the Railway Station. But John was driving, and only wanted to cruise slowly past each place, while I read out extracts from the Guide.

The route took us to the northern part of town and through a creek ford. This was flowing, but still very shallow and was no problem for the Terios.

There really are some superb old houses in Castlemaine. With some excellent gardens.

Callistemon

Half way through the tour, came to the old flour mill, which was being re-purposed as a kind of indoor permanent market, and associated businesses like a micro-brewery. It is great to see these superb old places being made relevant again. This one was still being set up.

John wanted to browse, here. We spent some time in a cavernous display area that housed old furniture, some household and industrial used items, ranging from vast filing cabinets, through hospital screens, to art works. There were some very nice tables made from reclaimed timber.

The adjacent space was even larger, containing lots of individual  “stalls” – mostly the usual second hand market things like crockery, books, clothing, kitchen wares.

After a bit of browsing, I found it rather repetitive and boring – and cold – so I went back to the car and waited there whilst John finished his wanderings.

Not sure what this bush was…

The rain had become heavy again, so we went back to Bus for the rest of the day.

John went out again to buy fish and chips for tea.

Watched football on TV.

Bus is better than the van was, on such days. As the ceiling and exposed upper areas of Bus have a type of felt/carpet surface, we did not get the condensation on metal surfaces that was an issue on really wet days in the van. And – touch wood – to date, we did not have the worry of leaks.