Mar 22, Macedon Mountains, Kyneton

We left Melbourne going northwest to the Macedon Mountains. We stopped in Sunbury for information and on through the town of Macedon. First, a little hike to a small waterfall in Stanley Park.
Up in the mountains, in 1934, a businessman built a cross to honor Australians who died in WWI. tHe cross could be seen in Melbourne, 40 miles away. It was rebuilt in the 1990's and we drove up to see it. It was cloudy and from the top we could just make out Melbourne as faint vertical figures in the distance. In the same area we hiked up Camel's Hump, the highest point in the mountains. The first European to scale it did so as part of the survey of Victoria. He was measuring the distance to Phillip Bay and thought of Phillip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, so he named the mountains Macedon after him.
A short drive away we came to Hanging Rock. It is an extinct volcano where the lava that blew from it has been eroded into unusual rock formations. It is famous in Australia because of the disappearance of a group of schoolgirls there in 1901. There is a book about it called, Picnic at Hanging Rock. There was a path that took us to the top of the rocks, but along the way were myriad paths up and down and around the rocks. It would be fun for Mika and Tashi, they love rock climbing.
Now, Hanging Rock has a racetrack, cafe, caravan park and is a big tourist destination. On Easter Bruce Springsteen is playing there!
We drove to the small town of Kyneton, took a little walk around town to see the old buildings built of bluestone. They were heavy, dark buildings; churches, courthouse, homes. There were also some houses with the lace ironwork. We took a walk along the Campaspe River, then found a place to set up camp outside of town, near a mineral spring.
Pictures - Macedon Cross, Samson at Hanging Rock, Jeanne at Hanging Rock, bluestone building in Kyneton and house with lace iron work in Kyneton.