Late last night, I was joined in Ballarat by a friend on his way back from watching the Tour Down Under cycling event in Adelaide. Today, we hit the road as he takes me to his house in Foster for a few days. Before leaving Ballarat, we had breakfast by Lake Wendouree, a massive man made lake on the edge of town, approx 16km circumference, though quite shallow. It is a very popular leisure resource, but while we were there we witnessed strange looking machines ...

Today I found gold! Predictably, I could not resist and went back to the Pancake Kitchen for breakfast, which consisted of pancake, eggs and bacon, topped with golden maple syrup. Suitably sated, I then made my way to Ballarat's main attraction, Sovereign Hill. This is an open air museum that recreates what Ballarat was like during the height of the gold rush. The museum consists of a mini town with many stores, workshops, theatre, hotels etc of the era r...

The ibis Budget Hotel, as the name suggests, is very basic, but it provided me with exactly what I needed: a comfortable bed overnight and a good shower this morning. After a refreshing night, this morning involved a bit more traveling as I headed back to the airport to pick up the shuttle bus to Ballarat, a journey of about 1.5 hours. Ballarat gained its fortune due to gold, and the evidence is all around in the shape of Victorian colonial architecture. Th...

So to recap. I'd arrived in Singapore bang on time and had exactly 1 hour before my next flight was scheduled to depart. Would I make it on time or be stranded? Coming up later in this instalment, I reveal what happened. As I'm sure you're all on tenterhooks, on the edge of your seat, fingernails bitten to the quick, I will, without further ado and unnecessary, tedious tension building, reveal the answer to the ultimate question: Did I make it in time? I did. I...