12-30 degC, a beautiful clear day
We
had a rather big sleep in this morning as it was still a bit fresh. Hence, we only got going about 9:30am which
was good as it had warmed up nicely; no need for socks or singlets, still kept
the vest on though as the wind is quite lazy and cool.
We found the Ballarat Showgrounds as we wanted to wander around the trash and treasure markets. We were correct in thinking they would be the same stuff, just in a different place. In some cases, there was a lot of c**p as well! We did see two “Beswick” china bowls but were on the bikes so couldn’t purchase them. One was quite big and would have made a nice serving dish, oh well, next time perhaps. We were really in need of a coffee and rode away from the excitement and found a cute coffee shop seemingly in the middle of nowhere so decided to give it a go – Eclectic Tastes. Coffee was good and the mixed berry muffin we shared was also good.
We had found out yesterday there was to be a military function on at the Australian Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial which is quite close to the lake we rode around yesterday. So, after the excitement of the trash and treasure wander, we found the location and watched on and listened in. It was the 14th Anniversary Service of the dedication of The Australian Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial which is now recognised nationally as the official National Prisoner of War Memorial. The memorial honours more than 35,000 Australians who were held prisoner during the Boer War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War (there were no POWs in the Vietnam War). It is a place of national honour, remembrance and healing for all Australians. The memorial takes visitors on a journey to a different time and place, where heroism, sacrifice and mateship were the defining characteristics of the prisoners of war. At the end of the ceremony we received a poppy to place on the granite wall listing all the POW names. Greg found a couple of “Walker” names and surprisingly, Wendy found two “Beswick” names. So, we placed one poppy each.
