On the evening of Saturday 9th September, 2006 the boys went to Walhalla Lodge No. 69 to support and assist Dean (Walhalla's) 3rd degree ceremony whilst the ladies, kids and caramellos went to Walhalla to be entertained on the Walhalla Ghost Tour.
The ladies and kids arrived at the Walhalla Museum at 7.30 with raincoats, umbrellas and sturdy shoes and proceeded to the Print shop to be introduced to our lovely tour guides for the night Brian and Tom. Inside the print shop we discovered that out tour guide Brian had relations going back 140 years in Walhalla, so had quite a bit of knowledge and heritage of Walhalla. After a short introduction about the history of Walhalla and the ghosts that had joined the past Ghost tours, we were all given a candle lantern and preceded up the main street of Walhalla, looking very much like Snow White’s dwarves. Passing the Freemason’s Lodge was interesting as the boys out the back pretended to scare us with a lot of ghost noises. Not scary boys.
Along the main street, not far from the Lodge, we were informed that a ghost of a man walking a dog has been sighted then we stopped at a cottage, we were informed of weird things that happen and weird things that have been sighted. The group proceeded on to the next vantage point, whilst Beryl (Taxi’s) partner stayed back at the cottage and watched the fence change colour. Beryl did catch up and we carried on our tour.
We were then taken to where the old primary school was moved to, it was open until the 1960’s. Well I don’t think they were ghost's but the streaker sure was white. Yes you read right streaker in Walhalla on a cold, dark night. There was a under 15’s football team staying at the primary school, now accommodation, and they thought it was quite funny to haunt our ghost tour.
After our tiny, yes I said tiny, interruption we proceeded up to the Long Tunnel Extended Mine. Unfortunately due a Movie night in the Mine, we were unable to go into the Mine itself but we got a history of the mine and the miners tools of the day to extract gold were handed around the group.
Past the Mine, we traveled along the Tramway Walk above the main street of Walhalla. That was a bit hairy and cold, not by ghosts, but purely the height, the wind and rain. Nathan (Steve Blake’s son, only male besides guides on tour) decided to entertain the back of the group by doing a good old fashioned Irish Jig through a puddle then realized his socks were rather wet.
Just before we descended down a flight of stairs, where the Roman Catholic Church use to stand, we were told about the Walhalla Cemetery. It is a myth that the bodies are buried feet first standing up. There is one grave that is said to be cursed, no one knows why but, a lot of strange occurrences have happened to people who have visited this grave. At the base of the stairs we were told about the strange happenings of the Bakery, furniture moving and people being held to the beds, miners will not even stay at the Bakery anymore.
Off up the main street the ladies headed towards the warmth of the Walhalla Museum. When we returned to the Walhalla Museum, we were invited to have look through the Museum, where a cabinet held quite a lot Freemason memorabilia. The Museum was interesting, some ladies had a coffee and some had a look around the shop. Just before we ended the Ghost Tour we had a group photo taken of us, out the front of the print shop, where a ghost has been photographed. We are all waiting with much anticipation as to whether we have the Ghost visit us on our Ghost Tour, photos to follow.
The ladies then headed back to Rawson Village where we waited for the boys to return. We did not mind, we had nibbles to eat, thanks to Jane and Jean along with a drink or two. The boys returned around 12.30am, that is where our ladies night ended.
I would like to thank Walhalla Ghost Tour people for putting on a Ghost Tour especially for us, and the 13 brave ladies and kids who attended the 2 hour walk around Walhalla in the not so nice weather, I hope you all had a great time.
Ladies and kids who walked: Terri, Deb, Sharyn, Beryl, Jane, Sandy, Jean, Anita, Darlene, Danielle, Nathan, Kerry and Lorna.
Thank you all for a wonderful weekend
Caramello (T.K.)
