Heathcote & Bendigo

I had a great day visiting various places around Heathcote and Bendigo, as well as visiting Shiraz Republic winery to press my wine, which has been fermenting for the last 10 days.

I started out early and went to Heathcote Powder Magazine first – the sun was not fully up and the light was perfect for taking photos. I then went up to the Viewing Rock Lookout for a picnic breakfast, and stopped at Mt Ida on the way to the winery.

After pressing my wine, I headed to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, a buddhist temple being built to the same design as the Great Stupa of Gyantse in Tibet. It is still being constructed, and when completed will be an amazing building, and will form part of a large self sufficient community, Including a monastery, housing, school and accomodation. There are also extensive gardens ringing the Stupa.

For lunch I headed to Bendigo Botanic Gardens, a small but well designed garden with some beautiful specimen trees, and a very nice place for a picnic.

For the afternoon I headed to the Central Deborah Gold Mine, something I have neglected to do on every visit to Bendigo before this.

On the way home I stopped at the Geographical Centre of Victoria, an exciting patch of gravel on the side of the road, with a cross on the ground and a plaque on a rock.