Blogs from Australian Alps, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

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

After the trip to Alice Springs we had a couple of quiet weekends relaxing and getting kit for our YHA skiing trip (at the end of July). We now have lots more stuff to pack / sell but we'll worry about that in a few months time! The highlight of this couple of weeks was probably heading to the local pub to see England's victory at Lords...very entertaining...though the landlord was threatening to charge me more for my beer for being a pom! We both worked half-days on the Friday before the skiing weekend so set off for the long drive to the snow in the early afternoon. Apparently there are some snow capped hills within a couple of hours drive of Melbourne but they aren't very reliable (lower altitude) so we were heading 4 or ... read more

Another Hot Day It was another hot day today so I kept my lovely little campsite for another day. In the morning I paid a visit to the local historical park where the caretaker/tourguide barely paused for breath during his 'quick' guided tour of the various buildings. I could barely get a word in to ask questions, but was reluctant to do so anyway in case it extended the time of his tour in the heat. Swifts Creek A nice round-trip via the old gold-mining area of Cassilis took me to Swifts Creek Hotel for lunch and then back to Omeo to spend the afternoon lying in the creek again. Distance Travelled Today - 100km... read more

English There were not too many exciting things happening during the last week. On Monday and Tuesday, I went on Mount Emu with Wes and Chris and launched from there. Both days, it wasn't easy to get up, but finally I managed to be Sputnik, above everybody else. On Monday, I had set myself the task of thermalling up, getting out of the thermal, flying somewhere else, and then try and find the same thermal again. I did pretty well on that. Actually, I wanted to land at Mount Beauty Airstrip, but I hit such massive sink that I just made it to the bombout. On Tuesday, my plan was to fly towards Mount Bogong with Scott and some other pilots, but on my way there, I started feeling so sore and exhausted from the flying ... read more

The day has started with rain and wind. Not heavy and everyone keen to get out in the snow anyway. We rugged up and headed out and threw lots of snow around and generally got wet. Doesn't matter how snow-proof your gear is, it is different when it comes to rain and slush. We had already paid for an all-day pass with a lesson but then weather was a bit wild for us so we headed in and had lunch. Once fed we headed down the Gully lift with all our gear, transferred in a bus to Falls Express and then headed up to the top of the mountain. Once on the mountain we were buffeted by the wet snow and wind. Very unpleasant for us West Aussies. I took Thomas off to his special kids ... read more