Out and About in Ballarat

Spent an interesting morning with Vida, an artist and printmaker, and her partner Fred, who makes divine furniture. Their home houses a fabulous collection of varied artworks and we were all most impressed with their vege/fruit garden where spinach, corn, berries of every variety grew happily amongst espaliered apple, peach, nectarine trees...just to name a few!




Chris was very kind to show us around the gold mining city where he and Di both grew up. Like the rest of the state, Ballarat has been in drought for years. Lake Weroubee has not had any water in it for 4 years. Surrounded by quality homes, it no longer offers water views. Although we were being silly, (as usual), (that's Steve trying to do breaststroke in the grass....) it is really quite sad for the people who live there.

What topped all this off was a personalized guided tour with Chris and Di's gorgeous son Matt, of the Mars factory. We spent 2 hours donned in white coats, hair nets and hats learning how Mars bars, Dove, Bounty, Twix, M and M's and Malteser chocolates are made. We were in heaven! Guided tours are not for the public so we felt very privileged. The company employs about 600 and sits on approximately 100 acres...it's huge! They can churn out 1 and a half million mars bars in a 12 hour shift! It was fascinating watching mixers, the size of small bathrooms, spilling out trillions of M and M's, and great long endless ribbons of biscuit and nougat dissappearing into enormous stainless steel vats to be sprayed with tons of chocolate. Our pockets were soon bulging, but I think Steve and Chris won the prize for eating the most. Needless to say we left Ballarat with enough chocolate to keep us going for the next 12 years! Fantastic! Cameras are not allowed in the facility so we only have a large weight gain to show for our visit.