Haircut in Bendigo

Saturday 14th: Journey up on Saturday morning about four hours. Fields and fields of floods and road surfaces damaged. Cold breeze but a high of 14 degrees. It is a colder 14 here because of the windchill factor. Green wind and rain. Stopped at Beaufort asked if Irish connection could not find any. Not a Navan Man in sight! Road signs on the way up full of Sullivans, Moroneys etc.
Met Peter O Neill who had exchanged in the early eighties to Alaska. Lunch at the Leadlight Café met all the gang. Of all the weekends together, the most yet attended this one. Then a tour. 1851 more gold that any where else in Oz. None since the fifties yet still number seven in the world in terms of gold mined. Mr Meyers was a native of Bendigo and his was the first Department Store to have a sale in Oz. His stores are now nationwide.
Not too many Irishmen can make the claim above. Surprised that the hairdressers closed by four on Saturdays. I was their last customer.
Our hosts had organised a Bush Dance for us and it was attended also by many of their friends. The hall was even in the bush, i.e. outside the city limit! Drinks and finger food were also provided. The band were called The Emu Creek Bush Band and before each dance they talked us through the dances and ‘called’ them as we did them. It was like being back in the Gaeltacht learning the Céilí. Indeed many of the movements were similar, the rules (eg lady on the man’s right, direction of circles and waltz) were also similar and of course the music was either Irish or adapted from Irish. It was all very familiar. I had forgotten my camera so am depending on some of the gang to email me. Video would have been nice . I have taken a lot of video this year but have not had the time to edit it and put it on the blog. The dance started at seven and finished at eleven. To finish all the different countries came out and sang their National Anthem. I resisted the temptation to sing ‘Danny boy’ and proudly stood on my own to sing Amhráin na BhFiann. It wasn’t easy, in front of a crowd but Padraig Mac Piarais would have been proud of me!
Sunday morning I took a lie in and as I was eating my breakfast the bird of the house landed on my shoulder and stayed there as I eat. Another first. Hope that photo arrives.

Met with Sandy (fellow from Canada) and we did Mine Tour, Talking Tram and Chinese Museum. The Mine tour took nearly two hours and I learned everything I ever needed to know about Gold Mines but was afraid to ask! We even got to go down in the actual shaft lift used by the miners and to wear the helmets with the lights.
The Talking Tram was a hop on hop off city tour but the city is quite small and there was not too much to encourage you to hop off. It was difficult to hear also because of the noise that the tram makes.
Chinese Museum was interesting. It outlined the migration of the Chinese to Victoria in the various Gold Rushes. It was incredible to think that the Gov introduced a $10 entrance fee tax for Chinese only, in the 1850’s. To avoid this tax, many landed in other states and walked over four hundred miles to get to Bendigo. There were many artifacts, the most notable being the longest dragon in the world.
Each place we went to people offered to take a photo of Sandy and me. Ironic when you consider the teasing that I gave Ann, when we were travelling, as she kept asking people to take a photo of us.