Exploring the Millwood goldfields

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letsgofishing

Grey Hound
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Feb 7, 2006
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Location
Sedgefield
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Honda XL650V Transalp
In 1876 gold was discovered near Knysna. Hundreds of aspirant fortune hunters flocked to Millwood. A town mushroomed within weeks. Six hotels sprang up, together with houses and shops. By 1888 there were 1400 claims being worked. However, not enough of the precious metal was recovered to sustain a town and its people. Mining machinery was abandoned where it stood and Millwood became a ghost town. The goldfields were deproclaimed in 1924.

Today, Millwood still maintains a mystical aura. There are remains of old foundations, street signs, a forlorn graveyard, tunnels and mine shafts. Some old stamp batteries and steam engines have been restored. The ‘Materolli’, or Monk’s Store houses a museum where visitors can obtain a pictorial background of the area and its mining heyday. The Millwood hiking trail covers 5,6 km in this area.

Trailrider, Eisbein and myself decided to explore the roads around Millwood - I have been there previously, but wanted to explore the area in detail as I LOVE finding roads that I have never ridden before.

First stop was Jubilee Creek as Eisbein had not been there before.
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There's a trail that follows this river and leads to a beautiful waterfall and pool - great to swim in in summer.
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A view of the river downstream.
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One of the paths leading into the forest.
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Eisbein on the way to the second picnic site. If you visit Jubilee Creek, follow the road past the main picnic site until you get to the end - this spot is not as busy as the main site.
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Trailrider going over the little bridge that leads to the second picnic site.
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Weapons of choice for exploring...
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We then rode on to Millwood - we did not have the time to go into the old mines and the museum,but they are worth paying a visit to. This is the site of the old hotel.
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At this stage I realized that I had been shooting high quality .jpg's and only having a 32mb memory card  :-[ realized that I would soon run out of pictures!  Trailrider and Eisbein, however shot lots of pics that I'm sure will be appearing here shortly!

The weather wasn't great, but yuo can see some roads in the distance. The entire area is covered with roads - literally as far as the eye can see. This for me, is the essence of adventure riding! ;D I think that a lot of them might be on Forestry land, but in our 3 hours of riding, we didn't come across a "KEEP OUT" sign - though there was one saying no cars ;D
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Trailrider and Eisbein along one of the roads.
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In indigenous forest.
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The roads seem to head in a easterly direction and there literally seems no end to them. We want to go back with a tent and food and see how far we can ride and where we might land up.
Till next time,
LGF
 
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