Day 6 ... Tuesday
Back on the road again and we head off through Bright..
What a pretty part of the world this part of Australia is at this time of year... The camera cannot capture all the true colours of the tress . You could spend days.... and some people do .. just taking happy snaps of the scenery....
But all that was about to change .... a short run over to Harrietville then down 2 gears and start climbing MT Hotham.
All good for the first 20 mins ... but then we noticed the cloud/mist/ sleet moving in...
The flash on the camera improves the clarity of these photos...the distance you could see with the naked eye was less than half that in the picture....
we slowed to approx. 15kph and attached ourselves to the number plate of the van in front.. all the time conscious that we had to stay to the right of the big red poles...
If you ended up on the left of the poles it meant that you where about to drop vertically down about 1000feet on some of the bends..
The whole time I was praying that the old Holden wouldn't have a mechanical failure...
No where to get off the road, no early warning if someone was coming up behind you in the fog.. a handbrake of dubious ability.... come on baby just keep heading up that mountain.
came across a bunch of roadworkers somewhere in the mist... They where gobsmacked to see 7 old cars and vans appear from nowhere ??
Eventually we made it to Mt Hotham resort.
A decision not to have coffee in the restaurant was made.. reason>>> we would not have found our way back to the cars in the fog!!!
A few k on down the road and the fog cleared making for an easy run passed dinner Plains ( no shops open here) and down into Omeo for smoko.
A few K out of Omeo we turned left on to Benambra rd heading for Colac Colac van park
One of the weirdest sights I have ever seen was near the turn off..Man made...
A stringy bark tree near a gate acted as a "coat hanger" for at least a dozen dead dingos !! all strung up by their rear legs??
Maybe a warning for other dingos that they are not welcome in sheep country!!
!...17ks on we pass through the little town of Benambra and our next challenge confronted us... 70 klm of corrugated gravel/ dirt forest road trails with logging trucks coming our way.
After a few ks of this you get a feeling for the best speed to travel at to achieve a fairly smooth ride... this combined with staying wide on corners sort of relieved the pain on the car and van.
Noticed this Hudson sled in a paddock..
took a few hours to traverse this horror stretch and I promise I will never include dirt roads ona tour ever again.
Mountain country finally opened up to rolling hills and we eventually all made it to "Click Clack" Caravan Park..
As luck would have it we had found another park that allowed OPEN FIRES... The caretaker was quick to offer a half trailer load of wood supplied by a local for just $10 per site.. so we took up the offer... even though we STILL had wood with us from Cooma.
And ... again we had to suffer being next to a mountain steam for the next 2 days.
Only real drawback .. if you could call it that was trying to avoid falling leaves..
But Hey.. that's better than falling branches !!
Tonights menu includes .. Sutcac stew and Kaybee spuds in alfoil prepared in the campfire.... Bloody perfect too!!!
Next day was a "Tow free day" so we all got a bit of washing done.. shot into Corryong and hit the shops..then headed over to a little pub at Cudgewa for lunch..
If your ever in the area drop in for Cudgie pub Whopper Burger....HUGE. Really friendly publican and wife and the meals where beautiful. Pays to phone ahead and let em know you are coming over for a feed.
Lots of history around the place.. sad to read in a book at the pub about the demise of the rail line through Cudgewa to Corryong etc..
The weather was still kind to us at this stage of the tour.. great scenery... great weather.. great meals...and great mates.. what more do ya need for a relaxing holiday ??
Plenty more to come
Reddo
as the rain was around.
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