The High Country - Mount Hotham and Dinner Plain

There was another heat wave coming and the forecast was much cooler up in Dinner Plain, so that's where we headed. Research into The Great Alpine Road told me it was sealed and suitable for caravans, with some saying it's steep and windy but no problem and others saying to avoid it! The section from Harrietville to the top of Mount Hotham is about 30km with an average gradient of 4.2%, but some sections are closer to 10%. We were in second gear most of the way up, and dropped down to first for the steep tight bends. The drops off the side were probably enjoyable for thrill seekers, but not for us! It wasn't until near the top (and where it had levelled out a lot) that I realised I should have been taking photos and videos.

We didn't pull over at any of the lookouts because Dazz just wanted to get to the top. Once we were up we stopped just before the village, and then in the village to go for a walk.

Even though it had been over 30 degrees at the bottom of the mountain for a few days there were still a couple of patches of snow - too far to walk to for a snow fight though!

Dinner Plain was a pretty village. The free camp was small, but we had a nice spot on the side of the road next to the grass. The sun was rather warm so we tried out our new awning. It doesn't quite fit between the car and the van, but we were able to make it work. We spent a pleasant afternoon sitting in the shade chatting to one of our neighbours before going for a walk around the village.

The next morning we walked down to Carmichael Falls. The main falls were not very exciting and there wasn't much to see, but there were smaller falls along the stream that were pretty.

Nug Nug, Myrtleford and Mount Buffalo

Over the years a couple of people have told us that Nug Nug Reserve is a great place to stay, but until recently we haven't been close enough for it to be a good option. With work almost finished for the year and our next fixed destination being Sale for Christmas, we thought the High Country would be a good place to explore. 

While we were in Bendigo we bought ourselves a Christmas present in preparation for a planned car/tent trip up to Cape York next year - an awning for the car. The instructions were easy enough to follow and so we attempted to install it at the caravan park at Bendigo that afternoon. The bolts that came with it were far longer than what we needed, and the lock nuts didn't like having to go through that much thread and kept binding up. Dazz couldn't get them tight as they just kept spinning in the track on the awning, so we pulled the whole thing off, strapped it next to the kayaks and went to Bunnings for some shorter bolts on our way out of town the next morning. Our first job in Nug Nug was to install it... not that we needed shade as there were lots of lovely trees around.

There were a couple of overcast days but it was still pretty.

We went into Myrtleford one afternoon and drove up Reform Hill to the lookout.

Some towns have murals, and some have silo art, but Myrtleford has mosaics. Some depicted the migrant history of the district and the quilts had patches representing various community groups, but the snakes and ladders board in the park was my favourite.

The 'Phoenix Tree' sculpture was also really interesting.

One afternoon we went for a drive out to Lake Buffalo after work. It was a bit breezy for the kayaks, but we've put it on our list of places to come back to as there were a number of pretty areas that would be good to explore from the water.

The 'big ticket' item for the region is Mount Buffalo, and the day we picked to go up there was perfect. It's a slow steep drive, so we decided to go right to the top and then do the walks as we came back down. The highest peak on the mountain is 'The Horn'.

There were 360 degree views and Mount Kosciuszko was even visible in the distance.

The next walk was 'The Hump', which went past the base of 'The Cathedral'.

Looking back towards 'The Horn'.

We were high enough for the vegetation to be different, but we weren't quite higher than the tree line.

We drove around Lake Catani and stopped for a photo. According to our blog, in 2010 we actually kayaked here!

Once we got down to 'The Gorge' area it was getting later in the day so we decided to only walk as far as Crystal Brook Falls.

It was hard to get a photo that captured the falls going down the steep gorge.

We didn't get to the other waterfall walks, so they've also gone on our list for next time.