David_Bricker wrote:Welcome, Gravelrash! Nice to have someone from Down Under! Also nice to see someone who has further to come to get to Death Valley than I!
I've been to Melbourne and Ballarat once. Nowhere near enough time to explore! A friend of mine is on temporary assignment right now in Melbourne. We've been looking for an excuse to require me to make a business trip down there.
David Bricker / SYR
Thanks for the welcome David. I guess this means I can still hope for some spiedies? I don't know what they are, mind you, but you don't get as.....rotund.....as I am, without making some damn good educated guesses about what's hot at the B-B-Q! I lived in Thailand for 10 years, so I learned to shut up and eat, despite what it looked like! Best decision of my life!
Death Valley has been on my radar for years but I didn't know much about it, really, beyond what most armchair tourists might know, until I started exploring your ghost towns. I used to go panning and exploring around the central New South Wales goldrush areas in my younger days but I left Australia to live o/s many years ago and I lost touch with "all that". Four years ago I moved to Victoria, purely for business and discovered I had landed in the great Gippsland goldrush area! There is a fabulous semi-ghost nearby - Walhalla - which I get to as often as I can. It reignited my love of the search and I've been having a ball the last 2 years, exploring the Victorian high country and it's gold history.
We have our business on the market and my wife and daughter surprised me a few months ago by suggesting I indulge my passion for all things American.... and go! I don't need to be asked twice. I will not examine their generous offer any closer! Who cares what their motives are, if it means I get to see Bodie?
My initial aim was to get as much Rocky Mountain into me as is humanly possible in 3 months. I fell in love with Montana years ago and feel like I can drive Going to the Sun Road and die a happy man.
I came across ghosttowns dot com, had a huge "Oh wow" moment, spent the last 5 or 6 weeks exploring all the fantastic ghost towns on their site, "met" David Wright as we shared (my) growing love of Jarbidge and....here I am!
My original plans have all gone out the window, several times, as I've explored more and discovered more. GoogleEarth is my friend!
Finding Panamint and Ballarat was huge for me. I felt enormous pride when I discovered the "bottle house" was built by an Aussie. I hope he drank his fair share!
Now I think I'll be lucky to get out of Death Valley in a month!
I'm pleased you've seen a bit of Oz and I hope you can come back and see a bit more. The welcome mat is out.
I think now you'll understand why I have a fixation on mountains!! Ours
are kinda ridiculous, aren't they!? Biggest "mountain" nearby is 1,200 metres!!
I have only ever been to the "re-enactment town" of Sovereign Hill near our Ballarat once, many years ago, but if your friend is into a bit of exploring, I thoroughly recommend the city of Bendigo, only an hour north. Both cities were central in our 1850's gold rush and Bendigo continues to produce to this day. It reeks of "Central Deborah", but there's a lot more fun to be had in the surrounding area. A detectors haven.
If your friend is looking for some driving company, he/you could pm me and I'd be delighted to show him around my area.
Maybe he could share the secret of the spiedie??