ARARAT & BEAUFORT, VICTORIA / FREE CAMPING AT GREENHILL LAKE / J WARD LUNATIC ASYLUM / VANLIFE

This week we travel in our converted Ford transit campervan, to free camp at Green Hill Lake, in Ararat, Victoria Australia. We were lucky enough to meet another camper Michelle, who gave us a van tour of her 50s vintage Airstream caravan, which she purchased and brought it back to life. The refurbishment looked just as amazing inside as it did outside.
Airstream is an American brand of caravan easily recognized by the distinctive shape of its rounded and polished aluminum coachwork.

We got a fantastic free camping spot right in front of Green Hill Lake. In the morning we headed into Ararat and had a look around town.

Ararat is a city in southwest Victoria, Australia, about 198 kilometers west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera.

After exploring the town, we visited Ararat Lunatic Asylum, where we took a walk around the grounds. The atmosphere felt spooky with s sense of eeriness – even though it was during the day. As there were no day tours, we then headed back into Ararat.

Our next stop was at Ararat J Ward prison, where we got permission to take out cavoodle Twyla on a tour of the prison. The J Ward began as a prison for the goldfields in 1859 and when the gold ran out in the 1880s it was taken over by the Lunacy Department to house the criminally insane. Over the following century, it was home to some of the most dangerous men in Victoria. On the tour, we got to see inside prison cells and how the prisoners lived behind the big bluestone walls. Twyla seemed to sense ghosts in parts of the prison. In our footage, you can see orbs flying around. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if they were spirits. The prison and the J Ward Mental Asylum run ghost tours, where you are taken back in time.

On the way home, we drove past the annual ‘Grampians Ride to Remember’ motorbike tribute ride. At this event, the community comes together to ride their motorcycles starting from Ararat and around the Grampians region. The ride raises money for the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation. The event has a few hundred participants.

Our last stop on the way home was for breakfast in the town of Beaufort, Victoria. For a small town, they had many cafes and interesting old buildings from 1870s.

#ARARAT & BEAUFORT, VICTORIA / #FREECAMPING AT #GREENHILLLAKE / J WARD LUNATIC ASYLUM / VANLIFE

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