Sunday 4 August 2019. Today the Handels met their friends for a picnic in the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens, then drove ten kilometres or so to the dry, scrubby Muckleford State Forest in the heart of Victoria’s gold country. Here we tackled the Muckleford Forest Walk (also called the Red, White and Blue Walk). We began the walk at Talbot Track, at the end of Muckleford School Rd. We followed Talbot Track as it veered north, then turned left onto Dunns Reef Track, leaving it briefly to look at Dunns Reef Mine. We then turned left onto Red, White and Blue Track, continuing as far as the recreation site (where one can see the poppet head of the old Red, White and Blue Mine). From here we turned onto Bells Lane Track and returned to our starting point. Goldfields bush is not George’s favourite; he much prefers the wetter, fernier forest of, say, the Otway Ranges. But it remained a very pleasant day out.