Yay! We have a visitor from England and we are very pleased to have developed an itinerary to show off a little slice of Victoria. Firstly off to Bendigo, founded in 1851, originally a gold rush town with a history of Chinese heritage. Now home to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, a Mahayana Buddhist temple with a surrounding Peace Park. The temple contains a priceless 2.5 metre high carved jade buddha, weighing about 4 tonne. We visited and were blown away by the scale of the development and vision of the project designers and fund raisers.

Next to Rupunyap, Sheep Hills, St Arnaud, Brim, Beulah, Patchewollock, Nullawil and Lascelles to see the large outdoor gallery – a trail of artwork that celebrates the Wimmera Mallee region through a series of large scale mural portraits, by renowned Australian artists, that have given new life to 90 yr old grain silos – each one telling a unique story about the host town.

Sea Lake, the heart of the vast cereal growing food bowl of Victoria and home to the tough and unforgiving but at times beautiful, Lake Tyrell landscape (the elevated salt levels in soil and water limit the types of plants and creatures that survive here). A 1.6kms walk out from the carpark to the observation platform to greet the sunrise.

Off to Mildura for our 3 day houseboat extravaganza. Always getting our priorities straight, its a fenced doggie park first for Mitzy the wonder pooch; she does love exercising and walking us 🙂

Onto Kerang on the Loddon River, home to the largest solar and battery farm in Australia, and the commercial centre of the irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, lucerne and grain. Had to make way for some seriously large truckloads of machinery on the way…..

Then onto Robinvale, known for its production of grapes, olives, carrots and almonds with a large itinerant and multicultural heritage and labor force (Italian, Pacific Islander, and Asian).

Stopped at Echuca for coffee, discovering the town was celebrating the “Winter Blues Festival”. Lots of live music, food stalls and main street pumping with tourists exploring the very picturesque boutique shops’ offerings.

On the way back to Melbourne, visited 2 more silos – one at Rochester, and at Colbinabbin – a greyish sort of day but it didn’t take away from the artwork which we loved.