Visited the Mining Hall of Fame, where went up to the Observation Deck, heading back to have a quick cuppa and soup before our booked tour of the 793C Dump Truck Tour, where we got to stand up and receive information on workings of the dump truck in the mines. From there we joined the Pitch Black Underground tour, where we were placed into mining gear of overalls, safety glasses, hard hat, battery and headtorch, gloves and guided down 166 circular steps underground of Hannans North Mine to Level 1 walking along the mine with points of interest before leaving well lit up area to descend 72m (12 storeys) down narrow original ladders one at a time before getting to yelling clear for the next person to start. Once down on Level 2 Meena asked us to place our ear muffs on and turned on the screamer machine that pumps air whilst miners worked area very stuffy. Continued along walkway not very high (William kept hitting his hard hat) and needed to walk carefully across plank covering part of the shaft, Jayde dropped a rocks down underneath as there was another 6 levels – took along time to hear a splash. Next we were able to operate a old rock drill whilst on, it shock the hell out of your arms.We were shown how they use to use a hammer and hole chisel befor the drill was invented, plus how they worked under candlelit and shown how it feels if the candle went out and you dropped your matches, where sometimes you had to wait for someone to come and get you and hopefully before the next day, very eerie feeling. We head back up to finish our tour by the lift which we decided to go up in the dark to continue that feeling of what they went through years ago and couldn't believe how squishy it was with the four of us let alone they use to put 8 men into them. Went on to see gold pouring demonstration where Jayde couldn’t believe a little nugget like a $2 coin size was worth $1,785 on the market. She couldn’t believe how quickly the gold cooled down once dunked in water. We then heard a story from Paddy Hannan how he became across his good fortune looking for gold. Jayde and William tried their luck at gold panning at the small stream before we finished off looking through the gallery, exploration zone. Weather quite cold and drizzly all day.

Went down to the Palace Hotel where the famous Hoover Mirror stood – well we were disappointed even though the mirror quite large and fantastic wood sculpture frame and lovely staircase, but none of the staff new anything about it and we thought after reading sign to have a cheese platter with a wine, but when asked girl said without a smile, we don’t have it even though sign had it – well had a drink in the old hotel .

Meet up with a lovely German couple Eddy and Brechan were we exchanged ventures as they heading over West and us heading East.