Blogs from Bright, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

Blog 21 - Spring is here! The snow has gone and the trees are no longer bare. Spring has blossomed with colour and activity. The ducks in Morse’s Creek are protectively teaching their cute ducklings how to survive with hundreds of humans in the park and dozens of children in THEIR creek. Bright is one of the most beautiful places in Australia and we enjoyed arriving to completely bare trees and very cold to spring and the breaking out of all the leaves on deciduous tree (nearly every tree in Bright) and flowers and blossoms. We spent our days off visiting all those place you have probably heard of, like Mount Hotham, Mount Buffalo, Falls Creek, Harrietville, Myrtleford, Beachworth (so Wendy could go to yet another Beachworth bakery) The Buckland Valley, Wandillogong and many more. We ... read more

We stayed in a funny log cabin place near the Grampians with a proper Aussie host (described by an Australian friend as Tropo). The Grampians themselves were amazing and full of wildlife. Mum got loads of use out of her new birthday binoculars, thanks friends! We saw waterfalls, mountains and great scenery. After confidently assuring Mum and Dad they wouldn't see emus (just like we said about koalas) we saw loads, along with kangaroos, wallabies and the other thing we claimed they would never see... snakes. We returned to Melbourne via the Gold towns of Bendigo and Castlemain. Dad even managed to squeeze in a couple of vinyard visits. Arriving back in Melbourne to Kath's wonderful hospitality was a real treat and we had a couple of days seeing family again and getting to see some ... read more

Blog 20 - 3½ Months on the Central Coast. (Quite a while back) It’s funny how funerals bring families together. Peter’s Mum would have wondered what all the fuss was about. The family gave her a lovely "send-off". We were grateful that we got to see all the family again. We were able to celebrate our youngest daughter, Shannon’s, engagement to long-time school friend, Michael Jones. Within in week of those festivities, Shannon was on a plane to Spain, for the next leg of her jet-setting, back-packing lifestyle. Before she left she suggested that perhaps we could meet her in Gallipoli next April! Great Idea! Something to think about. It’s strange that as soon as an idea is planted in your head, there are signs of it everywhere you look. Travel features in newspapers focused on ... read more

/Trip to Bright 18/02/11-21/02/1 Last Friday, Brady and I headed off up the Hume Hwy towards Bright, Victoria, for you Tasweigians thats up in the Alpine country near Mt Beauty and Mt Hotham. We drive the van at a steady pace of 90km/ph so the drive took us a quick (haha) 5 hours! Oh well, it was good and I reminiced the whole way! We set up camp once we got there and waited for Mum and Dad to arrive, which they did about 6pm I think? We sat through the rain and after a very hilarious game of Spicks and Specks, the board game, we said our goodbyes and headed to bed. Mum said to me "Wake up whenever you like and we'll have a big cook up of bacon and eggs at our site!" ... read more

Victoria – the place to be. C'est pas moi qui le dit ; l'épitaphe orne très modestement presque toutes les plaques minéralogiques de l'État. Mais, pour ce que j'en ai vu en un peu plus d'une semaine, on ne doit pas être très loin de la vérité. Des rocs mystiques des Grampians aux rivières arborées coulant paresseusement le long des Australian Alps, en passant bien sûr par la mythique et très fréquentée Great Ocean Road, ses falaises abyssales et ses plages aux déferlantes infernales, les résidents de Victoria ont de quoi s'y croire. Et je n'ai pas encore vu Melbourne ! Les plans initiaux, qui devaient me faire découvrir la ville un peu avant Noël, ont été passablement chamboulés. De Melbourne, j'aurais voulu emmener le van là où il n'est probablement encore jamais allé : en ... read more

Bright to Hotham The morning was warm, but not yet uncomfortable so the ride up the Great Alpine Road through Harrietville was quite relaxing. Once past Harrietville the excitement began with a well-constructed, but very twisty, road all the way to the ridgeline. The devastation from the fires a few years ago is still the most noticeable feature of much of this section of the road. Swathes of dead trees line the roadside while a patchwork of grey and green rolls away to the horizon. The last section of the road changes to a nice series of sweeping curves along the ridge and this is possibly more dangerous that the twisty roads earlier because there is such a great temptation to look at the waves of mountains in the distance rather than watching the road. I'm ... read more

Currently in Mansfield, heading for Bright for the night. As in most cases, the hardest part of starting a trip from the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne is the first hour that it takes to get out of the suburbs. After a brief stop in Lilydale to set a route into the GPS, it was off up the Maroondah Highway for the cooler air of the Black Spur, and then a leisurely lunch break at the Tudor Lodge in Narbethong where I met up with a couple of other bikers who were out for a day trip in the hills. Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon is non-existent - Just a grassy valley with wheel-tracks criss-crossing it from all angles. No sign of water anywhere. The temperature has been rising all afternoon and I'm hoping that the later ... read more