Melbourne to the Victorian High Country

In Melbourne we had a very relaxing time staying with my sister and her family for a few days, caught up with some lovely old friends, and enjoyed good coffee.

Compulsory visit to the AFL at the MCG.  An incredibly athletic sport!


Slightly suspect action from the boundary umpire.

Walking along the bay.

Beach huts at Brighton.


We missed out on a visit to Wilson's Prom thanks to the tail-end of the rain storms from NSW - gale force winds and driving rain not our preferred option. Another time... So instead we headed north again, to the Victorian High Country and back towards NSW.


Our first puncture.

On a dirt road, mile from anywhere, we managed to find a gyprock screw.
.
Fixed the old-fashioned way!

Awesome views from the tops of hills.  The vegetation varies enormously from huge gum trees in the valleys to grass and stumpy trees on the high plains, with tiny alpine wildflowers.

Camping at about 1500 meters - it was very cold!

Alpine meadows.

We found some old huts - most of these started as remote shelter places for graziers but are now used mostly by bushwalkers.  A lot of them started as very basic slab huts.

Some have been "modernised" over time as the timber has been replaced with second-hand steel sheets.

Although this looks like a army outstation on the North Korean border about to be stormed by James Bond, it's actually a bushfire lookout hut.  The photo is taken from the end of the road where there is a small bunkhouse and the access to the lookout is up and along the top of the ridge. It was incredibly cold and windy, not a place to stay long voluntarily!

This was the start of a 50km "shortcut" heading east from the Alpine National Park towards Dargo.  It was marked as an 'easy' 4wd track and, technically, it was.  However it was mostly very steep with sharp drop-offs to the side and, in the wet and knowing that no-one had been through for a while, was a nerve-wrecking 3 hours for the navigator.


We then headed through Bright and eastish towards the ski fields.  This is the lake just above Falls Creek - we camped in a beautiful spot amongst the snow gums a few kilometers down the road. 3 degrees overnight.

From here we're going to continue eastish, cross back into NSW at Suggan Buggan and head over to Jindabyne and back to Sydney for a few days over Easter - not originally planned but a lovely outcome of the Covid-determined changes to our route.


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