Locked Out!

Every once in a while we do something daft and make a fool of ourselves. When it happens, we dont fell good at all about being in a spot, but later on the story brings a smile on your face and giggles on others'. :-)

Why am I saying all this? I did something daft for a change. I certainly did not plan it but it happened something like this. The apartment that I live in has an automatic spring lock that locks the door when shut. You need to then have the key to open it from the outside.

Suffice it to say that keen on going to play a few games of table tennis, I picked up my paddle and rushed out of my apartment forgetting to take the keys. I had a good hour playing TT and when it ended, I couldn't find the keys to my apartment on me! Anyone who would have seen me at that moment of discovery would have seen a Merry Melodies donkey with a balloon over its head saying "DUNCE"! That is exactly how I felt anyway.

I tried to go down to the reception hoping to find the spare key, but to my chagrin, the staff had all left. The one member of the staff who lives in one of the apartments here happened not to find her spare keys and I was out there wet with sweat on a chilly winter evening and the temperature was falling below 10 degrees. Brrrr....

Necessity is the mother of invention they say; I say desperation is the gateway to all sorts of ideas. I started trying to find out a way of entering my apartment without a key. My apartment is on the first floor and I cannot hope to climb up a sheer wall on the roadside without any number of misfortunes befalling me (no pun intended) so I had to smother that idea even as it had begun to form. Then I spotted my bedroom window. This might be more plausible. First I had to remove the netting. This I managed to do without much ado after a few minutes of pulling, pushing and sliding until it eventually came off in my hands. That accomplished (without anyone spotting me and mistakenly calling the police) I had to figure out a way to undo the spring latch on the inside of the glass window to slide it open. I needed something thin and long that I could insert through the small gap between the jamb and the latch. I borrowed a pen-knife from my manager's home and he came out to help me in my efforts. We tried hard but we were not able to reach the latch with the small pen-knife and we could not find any other implement to help our cause. I had to give up after half an hour of trying and all of a sudden I started feeling the cold again.

My manager was good enough to ask me to sleep at his house for the night and I had no other option anyway so I accepted. My major dis-satisfaction now was I could not get to the nice soft chappathis and sprouted moong masala that I had cooked for dinner before going out to play. To add to the misery, I had invited another colleague to dinner and now I had to tell him that he would have to find dinner someplace else. Talk about adding insult to injury!

I sat in my manager's contemplating my not-so-comfortable position, with Manorama making wise-cracks in Thillana Mohanambal on the telly, when thanks to Dame Luck, the resident staff called up to say that she had managed to find the spare key to my apartment. How happy I felt, I cannot express in words.

So the story ended in a "happy ever after" note with me able to go have a nice shower and dig into my dinner and tuck myself cozily into bed.

Hope you dont ever forget your keys and wish you a nice weekend. Ciao! :-)

Ballarat & Blood on the Southern Cross

Sunday, 22 May 2005
Back home and resting

Hello all,

I have a long story to tell, so I shall get to it right away. I took Friday off from work and decided to go travelling. It had been more than a month since my trip the Grampians and I was getting quite restless. Work had kept me on a tight leash and I had to break free and chill out. God bless my manager for he let me and a friend of mine off on a Friday. I set about planning a trip for a couple of days such that we would be back late on Saturday evening.

Friday morning arrived, beautifully sunny with a clear sky dotted with just enough white fluff to shield the glaring sun when driving and Pravansu and I set off on our journey. Fuel tank filled and tyre pressure checked and corrected, we were all set to drive to Ballarat, our first destination.

The drive would take us an hour and twenty minutes. With Kishore Kumar singing out of a CD, the mood was just right. The holiday bug started buzzing around our ears. Ballarat is one of the oldest towns in Victoria. The town came into existence after a large amount of Gold was found to be present in and around the place. In 1850, Ballarat started as a miner’s settlement over Sovereign Hill and grew rapidly in size as word of the gold spread and people from far and wide came rushing to make their fortunes in Ballarat Gold.

We reached Ballarat in good time and made our way to the information centre where a friendly member of the staff helped us get reservations at a nice twin share motel for the night and also helped us with directions to the attractions in town. Our first visit was to the newly built Aboriginal Arts Centre. It is a small but dainty collection of art and artefacts made by the aboriginal peoples of the area. The Centre showcases the life and history of the aborigine people and has a lot of lovely didgeridoos, boomerangs and paintings.

The main attraction of Ballarat however is Sovereign Hill itself. The government has preserved the whole town in its 1850s splendour. Complete with people in 1850 costumes and shops and homes operating the way they used to in the ‘50s, Sovereign Hill is a unique experience that brings you face to face with living history.

A typical day on Sovereign Hill

The Red Hill Mining Company operated the largest mine on Sovereign Hill. I went down the real mine shaft and the tunnels on a tour and the darkness and the damp and dusty heavily laden air was quite spooky. Imagine tunnels several hundred feet deep into the ground where in some places you can only walk single file and bent double. In these depths and treacherous conditions worked the miners of a bygone era churning out 8-10 hour shifts with a single break of twenty minutes! It is no surprise that the average life expectancy of those miners, because of the unhealthy conditions that they worked in without any protection to speak of, was less than 60 years. After going deep into the tunnels, having learnt from the guide all about how the miners used to dig for gold first with just sledge-hammers and a tap and later using pneumatic drills, how water from the lower depths was pumped up continuously to keep from drowning the miners and how the quartz containing the gold veins were transported to the top manually by young boys aged 11 to 15 on carts (laden with half a ton of the rock), we rode through the dark tunnels on a track buggy into blinding sunlight. What a fantastic experience indeed!

Strolling thought the town we bumped into a file of red-coats marching about town making sure all was in order. The executioner got hold of me for getting in the way and I almost got his broadsword in my middle. Luckily for me, before he could strike, the governor’s carriage came by on Main Street and his attention was drawn for a moment and I managed to slip free to safety. That was a close shave indeed and I ran on till I reached the other part of town where I found musketeers practising firing their long muskets. I certainly did not want to get into the way and turned off towards the sweet aroma that was coming out of the building on my left. It was the confectioner‘s. A large sign outside read “Brown’s Confectionery Factory”. I walked in and was welcomed by a jolly person (his sweet s were as sweet as him, he claimed). I saw him make a mess of the place and himself as he made his famous raspberry drops. I tried one out and it tasted wonderful , just like he had claimed. I purchased a bottle of raspberry drops and bade the sweet maker goodbye.

Down the far end of Main Street I came upon the Wheel Wright. He was glad to show me how he wrought wheels and the spokes and the cogs from timber using machinery that ran on steam. The wheel wright makes the wheels for the carts and carriages of Sovereign Hill apart from shipping some to his customers abroad.

Near the mine, the smelter showed me how the nuggets were smelted and purified from the mercury in a retort and then poured into casts to make ingots each worth $50,000! Liquid Gold at 1200 degrees Centigrade is a sight to behold. The dazzle and shine will take your breath away and you cannot help but feel you want to possess it. I can understand now how Midas would have felt when he had the power to make gold out of anything by mere touch.

For recreation miners used to bowl at a nine-pin wooden alley.The alley is totally different from what we see today. It takes two people to play, for one rolls the heavy ball with both hands down a channel towards the skittles at the far end and the other replaces the fallen skittles after a throw and sends back the ball on another channel. After a few throws my arm started feeling sore and I gave it up.

I needed a bit of rest and I stopped by the stream that was flowing down Red Hill Gully. There were many busy panning for gold dust in the stream and I tried my luck as well. My luck aint anything to speak of, so I got no gold. The sun was slowly dipping down the horizon and what a day it had been for me. I shall not forget this day for a long time to come. What a life these people led in the 1850s! Hats off to their ingenious methods and discoveries.

The day was over but there was more to see. When fully dark Sovereign Hill turns into a theatre set, the largest I have seen, spread all over its 25 hectares. A multi-million dollar sound and light show called “Blood on the Southern Cross” takes you through the life and the fight of the miners against the government for their rights. The bitter struggle between the government and the common miner folk and the bloody battle that ensued are depicted in spectacular fashion under a starry sky. The miners group against the government under the banner of the blue Southern Cross. The action unfolds all around you and you are caught in the middle of a story more than a century before your time. It goes on for about 80 minutes as you are taken through different parts of the town on foot and aboard a buggy train. The climax where buildings a razed in a fire and shots are fired all around you spilling blood on the Southern Cross blew my breath away.

This day has been an exhilarating experience for me and one that will remain fresh in my memory for a very long time to come. It has been my pleasure to have shared my experiences with you and I hope you too can one day come to Ballarat and live the experience. Until my next blog from down under, I wish you all peace and happiness.

Of Vistas and Kangaroos - The Grampians

April 17, 2005
Warrawee Cottage, Halls Gap, The Grampians

Oooooh! It is cold. Boy, am I glad to be holding this steaming cup of tea. It is just dawn outside and it looks like a lovely day from my window-side seat. Here I am, comfortably nestled in a cushioned armchair sipping good tea and thinking about the nice time we had yesterday and wondering what the day holds in store for us today.

There are six of us. With two Ford Falcons, both boots full of stuff and a cheer in our hearts we had set off from our apartments in St. Kilda, Melbourne last morning. That was Saturday, the sixteenth of April 2005. After taking a couple of wrong turns and finally managing to get back on track we followed the Western Freeway to Ballarat, the gold-mining town of yesteryear and on past it, through Ararat and to Halls Gap.

Halls Gap is a small township sitting on the entrance to the Grampians. The Grampians is a dense natural forest area with a lot of mountains and wildlife. Halls Gap sits in a small Gap between Mountains forming a gateway to the spectacular scenery of the Grampians. I wouldn’t call it even a township, for it is just a congregation of a few buildings. There is the Visitor’s Information Centre, a grocery cum utility shop, a bottle shop and a police station. A Petrol station and a cricket oval provide a finishing touch to the town. There is a nice park with a few swings and slides for kids and serves as an ideal spot for a picnic lunch.

At the visitor’s centre we were helped by a nice lady. We picked up enough local knowledge and decide where we wanted to go. We collected maps with driving directions. Our first and most pressing need was however to find suitable accommodation for the night for the six of us. We had not bothered to book ahead, knowing this time of the year is not tourist season yet. We came expecting a few rooms at a motel or a Bed and Breakfast establishment and I am understating our surprise and joy in saying that we were overwhelmed when the kind lady at the visitor’s centre asked us if we wished to rent a lovely cottage all for ourselves. The price was good and we jumped at the chance.

So here we came to Warrawee, an orange painted wooden cottage with a first floor a long drive and garden. A neat porch leading to the front door and a barbecue grill by the back. Inside, the cottage is an epitome of homeliness and comfort. A tastefully set up living room and fully equipped kitchen, nice bath and toilet facilities and service area, two Queen Bedrooms and a third bedroom with single cots, make up the house. A nice balcony in the first floor looking out in the elevation is a nice touch of class.

So here we set down our stuff and set out to explore some of the attractions of the Grampians.

The Boroka Lookout and the Ried Lookout are very nice spots on the edges of the cliffs overlooking spectacular scenery. The lovely blue of the distant lakes and the rising mountains with vales in-between lend a refreshing feeling of goodness and beauty. The one snapshot that would stay in my memory for a while is the soft blue of Lake Wartook lying snugly between two arms of the Grampian Ranges. I might have a picture here of it to share with you.

Lake Wartook from Boroka Lookout

Our hearts light and fluttering, having taking in these spectacular sights, we carried on towards the Mac Kenzie Falls. The Mac Kenzie Falls is reputed to be Australia’s highest waterfall, though in reality it is not too high; I would put it at something between 60 and 70 metres tall. There is a narrow and quite treacherous track leading to the bottom of the falls where the water collects in a wide pool in dark rock. The track starts of rugged and rocky and slowly the gradient increases until it becomes very steep and very narrow. To make things even more tricky, the lower you descend, the more wet and slippery the rock underfoot becomes, not to mention the thick roots of the cliff hanging flora trying to trip you every step of the way. The brave and careful who overcome these hazards are treated to a spectacle like none other. The vista opens up a gorgeous and raucous waterfall that gets smothered into a placid pool set amidst a rocky cul-de-sac. I fell in love with this idyllic setting and will cherish this visit for a long long time.

MacKenzie Falls

On our way back (after pulling ourselves up the same way we went down, becoming quite weary in the process I might add) we stopped by at the small kiosk a the head of the track. The jolly kiosk-tender supplied us with tea, coffee, ice-creams and biscuits at a reasonable cost. I even picked up a nice small (real) boomerang from his shop window. We had had a great time so far in our trip, but there was one small detail missing. It feels quite awkward to concede the point but the fact remained that I had not seen a single kangaroo in Australia yet in my two months of stay here! I lamented my tale of woe in the passing to the kiosk-tender and voila, I hit pay dirt almost immediately! The garrulous shop-keeper told me that I was standing in the middle of Kangaroo land. He showed us a spot on our way back home that he reckoned would be the best place to see a really large number of kangaroos. This spot turned out to be the Cricket Oval in Halls gap! It was getting on dusk and the air was cool, perfect for the kangaroos to come out for a graze and what better grazing ground than a lush green cricket oval!

I saw a few dozen Kangaroos in the Oval. We stopped our cars and let all our travel fatigue ebb away strolling in the midst of these mild-mannered and quiet marsupials. This was probably the best finish to the day I could have hoped for. After a while (several photos and hopping matches later), we began to feel the chill of the night and headed away to Warrawee Cottage. A couple of loaves of bread, some butter, jam and hot cups of milk later, I tucked myself into the cozy bed and let my eyelids droop off leaving my mind wandering the green fields with the kangaroos of Halls Gap.

The sun is up now and I am eagerly looking forward to today’s adventures in the hypnotic Grampians.

Until my next blog, au revoir!