Blogs from Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 10

Having spent the past three weeks exploring the Victorian Alps, the time had finally come to say farewell to the mountains and make my way back to Melbourne, via the 'rural city' of Wangaratta. But rather than simply hopping on a coach for the 80-odd kilometre trip from Bright (possibly my favourite small town in Australia) I wanted to get there in a way that would do justice to the wondrous scenery to be found all along the Ovens Valley; and if I could find a way to incorporate a visit to some of the local craft breweries in the region, well, that would probably be okay too. And so after locating a bicycle hire company (appropriately named The Bike Hire Company) in nearby Beechworth who could drop a bicycle off to me in Bright and ... read more

Wednesday Leaving the campsite at Cope Hut the following morning, I soon found myself walking along a vehicle track alongside the beautiful, clear waters of the Langford West Aqueduct, complete with a healthy population of small freshwater fish. A short detour up a side-track then brought me to the oldest surviving cattleman's hut in the High Country: the 132-year-old Wallace Hut, built on-site in 1889 by three brothers from the Wallace family, who were thus able to spend weeks at a time driving cattle across the High Country pastures whilst living in relative comfort in their specially-built shelter. Back on the main track I followed the gentle curves of the aqueduct as it pursued it's course high up on a ridge that wraps around the head of the Middle Creek valley. Not only was the walking ... read more

28th November 2020 Street art Melbourne Well, this evening after watching Strictly I jetted off to Melbourne for a tour of the Graffiti Lanes of the city with Josh our guide at 8am on a wet Sunday morning. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, much of the city's disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York City, which then became popular in Melbourne’s streets and alleys. Today we visited two of these alleys - Hosier Lane & AC/DC Lane Nosier Lane was a short walk from Flinders Street station and the most popular and famous graffiti laneway in Melbourne. Whilst many of the artworks are commissioned many are the work of up and coming street artists. One wall was completely covered with small framed artworks. A variety of subjects, ranging from some political, some cute ... read more

The definition of "puncture" commonly has two varitions. (1) to puncture via a piercing of the skin and (2) the cause of a sudden collapse of air. Technically I didn't get a puncture, a patch applied 12 months earlier had given way overnight and in the morning my rear tyre was deflated. Jeff on the other hand was admant in the Puncture Count score happily singing (yes singing) one - nil while I changed my tyre. Needless to say we got away later than expected this morning, but I was greatful for my bottled air which meant no hand pump was required. Only a shortish day today of 60+ kms. We started north from Nathalia and into a North Easterly wind. Slow going for the first 5kms but the wind was our friend for the rest ... read more

A change of plan at dinner (yes, another one) had us heading for either Mulwala or Yarrawonga today. Either way it meant we hadd 100kms to travel so we needed to be up early and away before both the heat and wind got up. We did pretty good getting on the road by about 7:10am. Rather than follow the main highway out of town we chose the scenic route around the river, only to notice after about a kilometer that river was flowing "the wrong way"! Oh dear, another slight directional lapse but at least it only cost us a couple of clicks. The riding in the morning air was perfect and the heat of the day was still hours away. We made great time to our first stop at Howlong and cruised into the bakery ... read more