Wow Weekend tWo

Having satisfied my Abandoned need for a while, I needed to attend to the other requirements -
So I dragged the bike out of the car and took off along The Domino Trail, an abandoned rail-line now rail-trail still with some of its bridges 

Over Stony Creek

Above - the Doctors Creek Bridge deck, & below - in Doctors Creek

The dilapidated Blue Creek Bridge, I went around, except when I had to venture out for the cache. And finally the brick culvert tunnel through the embankment that crosses the Domino Creek.

Then having logged all the 11 geocaches on the Domino Trail, I needed to bag a trig point, so up the steep Tower Track to the top of Blue Mountain with its communication, trig & fire towers. It was on the way down that I spied the red leaves of a deciduous tree in the forest AND found a cemetery! The Newbury-Blue Mountain Cemetery is reverting back to bush, but is still open, it had its most recent burial about 1980.


The trig & fire towers
 

The exotic tree in the cemetery

The path into the Newbury-Blue Mountain Cemetery

Next Sunday - a change of pace

Wow weekend

On the weekend, I had a chance to tick a couple of boxes

Kattemingga's church

I'd come across a Pinterest photo of 'Old church in fog, Kattemingga, Victoria, Australia', was intrigued didn't know Kattemingga - so Internet search = it is in central Victoria just south of Newbury. 

The grounds of Kattemingga Lodge

Kattemingga Lodge is a 150 acre farm, with a accommodation, AND a film-set used for 'The Man from Snowy River', 'Ponderosa', 'The Mole', and a number of commercials - I had to visit!
The farm/lodge is currently operated by Nola & Gary Whitehouse and who have been there for 35 years, but as Nola is about to turn 72, they have decided to retire, having sold the property to a Buddhist retreat, so the future of the film-set buildings is uncertain (and my recording of them imperative).

The main street of the film-set

With all the planning of a military campaign, I stayed Friday night at the Lodge overlooking this - 

Then up before the crack of dawn

And cycle off to take lots of photos

 

The buildings are falling into decline, but were constructed as complete structures, not just facades, with the interiors also being used for shooting

 

The Hotel being a bit more up-market than the saloon, and still with a couple of props on location.

 

 

 

 

 

  I whiled away some hours wandering around and through the set, then took off to satisfy yearns for caches, bridges, cemeteries...more on that next post.