dazjet 'n family: A week in Bright

We have just returned from a wonderful week in Bright, in north-east Victoria. Bright is situated in the Ovens Valley surrounded by the Victorian Alps. The Ovens River runs through the town. Bright is a popular holiday destination at all times of the year, but at the moment the autumn colours set it apart from other areas of Victoria.

We stayed at Pine Valley Caravan Park which was a picturesque park, with lots of shady trees, many decidious and beginning to show some autumn colours. The kids had a great time on the jumping pillow. Although the weather was terrific, it wasn't really warm enough to try out the pool!

About 6 kms from Bright is the little town of Wandiligong. Gold was found around the creek there and there was a settlement of Chinese miners who worked the diggings in the 1800's. We went to the more recent attraction - the maze, said to be the largest hedge maze in Australia.

58 Kilometres from Bright is another historical town - Beechworth. We drove up there one morning. Darrin then rode his bike back to Bright via the Rail Trail, the others stayed and explored Beechworth. They went to the old jail:

Beechworth was also established in the gold rush and much of the historic buildings date from that era.

A highlight for the kids especially was visting the honey tasting shop! They tried a number of varities and chose some favourites to buy to bring home.

Beechworth is also well known for its bakery, so a visit to Beechworth had to include a visit for lunch:

The historic post office in the centre of Beechworth:

After lunch, the kids had a blast on the granite rock slide in one of the parks in town. Its a natural boulder that has been worn smooth over many years of backsides sliding down it!

Meantime, the bike ride back to Bright was meant to be around 73 km's... but actually turned out to be closer to 85 km's! The first 17 km's were pretty easy as it was pretty much down hill, through farmland. Then it was a pretty flat run through the Ovens Valley - except for a short climb through Taylor's Pass.

Darrin starting off from Beechworth:

Some of the scenery was stunning, with mountains, autumn colours, vineyards, towns, old farm buildings and machinery, rivers and creeks...

Darrin felt a sense of achievement having completed this ride - but if he'd known it was going to be 85 km's all up he might have reconsidered doing it!

The next day, Zac and Jeanette did a shorter ride, from Wandiligong back to Bright, including a stint along a rough track beside Morses Creek.

The old, former general store in Wandiligong:

While Zac and Jeanette did their bike ride, Ethan, Gemma and Darrin went into Bright and found an ice creamery...

Sunday morning saw us driving up to the top of Mt Buffalo - a spectacular mountain of granite outcrops. We drove all the way to 'The Horn', its highest peak at 1723 metres. (around 200 metres short of Victoria's highest peak, Mt Bogong and over 500 metres shorter than Australia's highest peak, Mt Kosciuskco. At The Horn, we went on a 1.6 km walk up to the very top, which literally had us on a large rock, with a 360 degree view over the Alps and valleys below. It was an amazing sight, even though it was a little hazy due to a fair degree of controlled back burning around the state.

After a picnic lunch we walked up and past 'The Cathedral' and on to 'The Hump' for more terrific views. All up, we walked nearly 4 km's - all of it up or down hill. The kids did very well.

Atop Mt Buffalo is Lake Catani which is a popular camping area. We just popped in to have a look on our way back down the mountain. Ethan and Zac felt adventurous as they went out on this log which hung over the lake! Neither fell in, just as well as a mountain top lake is probably quite cold.

The Mt Buffalo chalet was originally built in 1910 and sits just a couple of hundred metres back from the edge of a rocky cliff. Unfortunately it was closed down a few years back and its future is unknown. While taking this photo, there was thunder from an approaching storm, making the whole scene reminiscent of a Scooby Doo TV epsiode! I could imagine Scooby and his human friends driving up to The Chalet on a dark and stormy evening only to find it is 'haunted' by what turns out to be the vindictive gardner!

After all that walking and climbing, and reminiscing about Scooby Doo episodes, the next day was a more relaxing one in the caravan park. This included riding parks around the park and chilling out a bit.

We also went on an 'autumn leave' hunt, finding a row of terrifically coloured trees outside the local golf course...

Riding around the caravan park was a very popular past-time for us all - especially Ethan who grew in confidence each day, after his training wheels were taken off shortly before this holiday.

One more walk was tackled - up Huggins Hill to the lookout over Bright. It was again hazy due to burning off.

Our final afternoon we went to Harrietville, 20 km's further up the valley just before the road climbs up to the ski resort of Mt Hotham. There's a nice little picnic area and playground by the river at Harrietville, although a flash flood had damaged the area a couple of weeks ago, washing silt and top soil off fire ravaged Mt Hotham. Fires ripped though the mountain over summer this year.

On our previous visit, just over 5 years ago, Ethan had his photo, aged 8 months old alongside this old log at Harrietville. We re-enacted that scene today!

There was a swing that went out over the river that the kids all enjoyed scaring themselves on.

Jeanette has a particular soft spot for Harrietville, as her Great Great Grandfather built this church in the 1860's, as well as part of the original school. Perhaps the kids don't appreciate or comprehend this historical connection yet, buy we made sure we got some photos of them by their Great Great Great Grandfather's handiwork!