We awoke to a sunny cool day of 19 degrees. The night had been cold at 15 degrees and very windy.
We were on the road by 8.30am, bound for Ararat Old Gaol 92km south. It had warned up to 24 degrees but nowhere near the 46 degree heatwave they'd been predicting!
We drove past the iconic and very grumpy looking Giant Koala at Dadswells Bridge!
As we neared Ararat we saw the famous Great Western, Seppelt and Grampians Estate wineries.
On arrival into Ararat we took the 10am tour around J Ward which was a notorious prison / "hospital" for the criminally insane and was only closed in 1991. They even let us bring the dogs on the tour which was great!
It was the most soul destroying awful place where murderers mixed with patients with simple depression. People were hung there and buried there and some spent more than 60 years locked away and forgotten about behind its cold bluestone walls.
The tour was fascinating but the treatment of those people until really recently just made our stomachs turn.
We ate our sangers in the beautiful gardens outside J Ward and then left at 12.40 to drive down the motorway to Ballarat, where we refueled at 1.30pm ($1.20!).
Last stop Langwarrin for Xmas and a bit of a rest, wash ourselves properly (and the Triton and Swifty!).
We've come to the end of the first leg of this epic trip. 5,310km in 12 days and we haven't killed each other (although we came close a couple of times)!
It has been amazing and a trip of a lifetime and we are all justifiably very proud of such an achievement especially when everybody was telling us we were crazy to even attempt it.
Well, we're glad we did and we hope you enjoyed following us.
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