Christmas In Ballarat

Part III








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A little ice from the recent storm remains in shaded areas. Dinner? A lone burro is having a snack. The dual boilers of Clair Camp. Brick thieves and vandals have all but ruined one of them.
One of the upper mine adits. A dangerous looking stope off the right of the tunnel entrance. Not the safest looking mine I have been in. Oh ya! This looks inviting...
Tabby has been instructed to stay outside. A look down at the crumbling camp. It never stood a chance being in the middle of a popular route. Lepidium (Nate) and his wife Riannah stand at the main ore hopper of the mill. Riannah is a direct decendant of the Clairs. The main camp cookstove. Riannah's grandmother cooked for the whole camp here. The cook house is caving in around it.
This looks like the powder magazine. It has dual steel doors. Inside we see that it is caving in. Another weak looking adit. This one has signatures and dates from the person working here. These mines were worked as recently as the early 80s.
Another adit with a stacked stone entrance. We start to encounter a little snow as we climb further up the side of the canyon. I have abandonned the truck and started hiking because of snow. Bill has continued on. Bill coming back down from the snow after a little detour to another one of the upper mines.
As I hike down a different road to meet up with Bill I notice parts of the tram are still intact. An old stove along the side of the road makes me wonder a bit. Was it dropped off due to a breakdown and never recovered? The foundation of what used to be a two stamp mill. (lower right)
A closer look at the boiler. The 2 stamp mill foundation and the pit for the huge flywheel. More of the stacked stone foundations. One of the stamps lies in the upper right. The drive belt pullys for the mill.
Close up of one of the stamps. Bill and Manfred (from Germany) talk about how cool the World Beater Cabin is during lunch. The Crapper. Some one has stolen the solar panel from the World Beater Cabin.
The World Beater Cabin is one of the Adopt-A-Cabins. Bill continues the loop while I turn back because of snow. Along the way I spot the ruins of a rock sturcture. Christmas Eve in Ballarat. Good friends and a good camp fire thanks to Bill! Christmas eve was great!


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