My friend Kathryn is an Aussie from Wagga Wagga that I met in Vancouver while she was in North America for a couple of years. She arrived back in Australia in Feb. and this was the first time I had seen her since she was back in her home country.
Kathryn arrived at my apartment on Wednesday evening and together we found a great Indian restaurant with in walking distance from my home (we found a great Thai place too but we could only eat one meal so I'll be back). It was nice to have another dinner out and to discovery two great restaurants to take away from on those nights I don't want to cook. While at dinner we talked about doing a road trip since it was my first (and second to last) long weekend. Since she had driven down from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales she suggested that maybe we tour the "Great Alpine Road". I hadn't heard of it but with some research I was keen to go.
Thursday Kathryn and I didn't really meet up as we both had things going on. On Friday night we headed into the city for dinner (she showed me a place for asian noodle soup) and then walked to the Mooba festival. Mooba is Melbourne's weekend water festival. Originally I thought I would get to it for the parade on Monday but the road trip took priority. Anyhow we made it there on Friday night and were able to watch some cool water skiing demonstrations in the river. I'm sure it was a great weekend for it in the heart of the city.
Saturday morning Kathryn and I headed on the road. It was great to be in a car again, and I'm getting better at sitting in the passenger side (which would be the driver side for me at home). After a couple hours of driving we stopped in a small town called Moe. Moe was having their own festival and so we listened to a bit of a live jazz concert. We also saw a small antique car show. There isn't much to Moe but we were able to pick up some road snacks and get back on our way.
Some of the cars we saw in Moe, Victoria.
From Moe we drove a bit further and our next stop was in Sale, Victoria. Sale was right on a river and it used to be a busy port town in its past. Again there wasn't much going on in Sale but we took a few pictures and headed on our way.
Sale's Port
From Sale we headed to Bairnsdale (283 km from Melbourne). Bairnsdale is near the official start of the Great Alpine Road. While in the tourist information place in Bairnsdale we discovered that we were very close to the Ninety Mile Beach which ends at Lakes Entrance. So, we turned our car in the opposite direction and headed to Lakes Entrance. (I know this was suppose to be a beach free weekend but we were so close and who knows when I'll get back there).
As you approach Lakes Entrance you are greeted by these great views of several small lakes. In addition once you get right into Lakes Entrance you can take a small foot bridge onto what I'd call a sand barge and you're on Ninety Mile Beach. If I'm not mistaken Lakes Entrance is the end of the Ninety Mile Beach. Most of the beach can only be accessed by boat. As you can see from the photos Kathryn and I were glad we made the detour.
The view as you drive into Lakes Entrance.
A small snap shot of Ninety Mile Beach
While walking around Lakes Entrance I saw two things I don't think I've seen in the wild before. I saw some pelicans, and I saw some back swans.
Pelicans
Black Swans
(I always thought that swans were only white so this just seemed wrong to me)
From Lakes Entrance we got back on the road and headed back to Bairnsdale to refuel. As I mentioned Bairnsdale is the start of the Great Alpine Road. We then headed towards Omeo a small town about 120 km along the Great Alpine Road. The scenery changed quite quickly as we started to get into mountain territory. It took longer than we expected to get to Omeo and when we finally arrived we were told that there were no rooms to be had - any where in town. Thankfully some calls were made for us and a room to sleep was found another 40 km UP the hill in Dinner Plain. We were also warned in Omeo that cows (BLACK COWS) come out at night and often sit on or beside the road occasionally trying to cross the road. Thankfully we had this information as we saw many cows sitting at the side of the road in the dark. We also had a wild Kangaroo jump out in front of us too but thankfully we saw it with plenty of time to keep everyone safe. We arrived at Dinner Plain around 10 pm and were happy to have a place to sleep in a great ski lodge. It was cold in the mountains. (Dinner Plain is a small sky resort that is part of the Hotham Mountain Group).
The next morning we got up and did a short hike to a waterfall. Along the way we had some great views but the sad part was we could see smoke from the fires that are still burning. In the picture below if you look carefully you can see dark smoke. It looks a bit like a heavy cloud but it wasn't, it was smoke. :- (
View from Dinner Plain
(but take notice of the smoke in the background in the sky)
We left Dinner Plain and jumped into the car and headed to the Mt. Hotham . Below is a view from Hotham. During winter it's a busy ski resort (yes there is snow in Victoria) but in the summer it was pretty quiet. This weekend there was actually a bike ride taking place. The people in the race road from Dinner Plain up to and OVER Mt. Hotham then back again (Hey Ms. KB this would have been your thing!). They were totally crazy as the road is super steep and windy heading down from Hotham.
View from Mt. Hotham
From Mt. Hotham we drove down the mountain and stopped in Harrietville for lunch. It was a cute little town. From Harietville Kathryn asked if I would drive and I DID! All the way to Bright. It felt really strange though for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason of course was because I was sitting on the right side of the car to drive. We arrived in Bright will very little mishap but I was glad to give the keys back to Kathryn. Driving on the wrong side of the road was way too stressful in her large car. Obviously I will drive again soon but if I have a chose I'll drive something smaller.
Bright is a very beautiful town with great trees and lots of lush plants. It's also on a river which is well utilized by the town. Apparently the leaves change into amazing fall colours and while it's fall here in Australia, the leave colour changing hasn't taken place yet.
This is the river in Bright.
You can see from this picture how green and lush it is.
The green and lushness reminded me of home.
From Bright we headed to Myrtleford and checked in for the night. I walked around town but there wasn't much to see or do because by 5 pm things shut down for the evening. It was also a Sunday night which I'm sure made things worse. Having said that though Myrtleford was ALSO having a festival although I saw very little sign of it.
Since Kathryn and I hadn't eaten dinner and there wasn't much in Myrtleford we decided to drive to Beechworth for dinner. Along the way we drove through a part that had been affected by the forest fires. It was pretty spokey to drive through the remains of burnt trees. As you can see from the pictures it was a low fire as most of the tops of trees were left untouched.
What's left after a bush fire went through.
Beechworth was great. It's an old gold rush town (1860's gold rush era) and the buildings have a ton of character and history. Dinner wasn't so great but that's okay. Seeing the town was worth the drive.
The Post Office in Beechworth
After dinner we headed back to Myrtleford for the night.
We woke early Monday morning as we had a lot on the agenda but I needed to catch a 4 pm train back to Melbourne. As we were leaving Myrtleford we stopped at an old Tobacco Smoking Kiln.
This is an old tobacco smoking kiln.
After a few photos we were back on the road, heading back to Beechworth. This time we were able to take the 5 km scenic drive and learn a bit more about the town. We also were able to go into some of the shops and try out the famous Beechworth bakery. The pastry I had was excellent although I'm glad the bakery is so far away. It could be trouble if it was any closer than it is.
From Beechworth we headed to the Milawa region which is the Gourmet Food and Wine region. Our first stop was at Gapsted Winery. I enjoyed may of their white wines but I was less keen on their red wines. I will have to look for the wines that I tested as I've heard they are available at Dan Murphy's .
Gapsted Winery
We left Gapsted and our next stop was an olive shop. There I sampled olive oils and olives and I left with two bottles of different olive oils. I could have bought the entire place. From there we went in and out of gourmet food factors that included cheese, chocolate, olive, and wine. We stopped at Brown Brother's Winery and the place was packed. Again I really liked some of their whites but I was less wowed by their reds. I will have to look for their wine too.
Once the eating and drinking (I was the only one doing the drinking) was over we drove to Glenrowan. It is here in Glenrowan where Ned Kelly (a well known bank robber) was finally caught and sentenced to death (by hanging in Melbourne). Ned Kelly plays a big part in Australian folklore history. Some say he as was the Original Crocodile Dundey. He wore his own hand made armer.
A statue of Ned Kelly in his homemade armour. It kept the enemies bullets out.
Here is a picture of me beside the spot that Ned Kelly was finally short by police and captured.
After spending a bit of time learning about Ned Kelly in Glenrowan ( and wasting far too much time waiting for lunch in Glenrowan) we headed to our final destination - Wangaratta. We looked around Wangaratta for a little bit before it was time for me to board my train back to Melbourne. Kathryn lives in Wagga Wagga NSW so she still had another two hour drive back home. I had a three hour train ride back to Melbourne. It was a bit sad to say goodbye as it was nice to have a friend to spend the weekend with . The train ride back was uneventful. I sat beside some boarding school kids so their conversations where pretty interesting as I tried to get my weekly planning done. In less than three hours I was back in Melbourne (my train actually arrived EARLY) and shortly after that I was back home.
It was a great long weekend and I'm so glad I was able to see the great Alpine road.
I wish I had more long weekends to get away far again. Who knows, maybe Kathryn will get a job in Melbourne and then I may even get a chance to go skiing or snowboarding while I'm here in Australia. You just never know!
In the meantime this Friday I'm heading to Ballarat by train to meet up with my exchange group again. I'm sure it will be another great weekend. Thankfully it's only a four day teaching week so I should be able to make it. One day is already done too, so just three more until it's the weekend again.
Until next time....
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