Bendigo 6 – 11 Nov 2012

Said goodbye to Pete and Maxine and then headed to Bendigo. We originally wanted to go to a country race meeting for Melbourne Cup, but when we decided to go to Bendigo for a blues festival, we hoped to find a venue hosting a Melbourne Cup Celebration in the region. However we were surprised when we contacted the local tourist offices to find that there was nothing on. Apparently this region had their race day holiday last week and Tuesday was just another working day. It’s funny when the whole of Australia celebrates the Melbourne Cup, yet in northern Victoria it is just another day. We finally found a nice pub (The Shamrock Hotel) to listen to the race call, but it was the quietest Melbourne Cup day we had experienced. With none of the favourites getting into the top 4 we did our dough and had to wait til later in the night to collect our $100M winnings from Oz Lotto. However the hand of fate overlooked us again and we didn’t get a brass razoo from that draw either – back to lottery tickets! The next day we drove around Bendigo and had a look at the sights. Bendigo (along with Ballart) was the richest of the goldfields and this is reflected in the beautiful public and private buildings that grace the streets. It also has (to our surprise) 15 op shops that we managed to visit over the next few days. We also saw the hidden side of Bendigo, which is full of run down housing and people who seem to be struggling with life. Bendigo Blues Festival was held in the pubs and bars around town and featured a variety of blues and roots music. We had a great time listening to the music, especially on Saturday, where they had an outdoor concert in a local park. Amongst the groups we liked were Blues Mountain, Dave Diprose, Stringybark McDowell, Jo Jo Smith, Josh Owen and Urban Creatures. By Sunday evening we were exhausted after 4 days of music and were happy to have an early night.