Wandering Hans all over Australia: Day 12 Mt Buffalo

Easy morning, lunch in Myrtleford then a short-ish drive to Mt Buffalo.

First stop was Eurobin Falls at the start of the winding drive up the side of the mountain - well, an Australian sized mountain at 1695m in what we refer to as the Australian Alps. Hans is unconvinced about the validity of that name ;-)

Lady's Pools at Eurobin Falls

Eurobin Falls.

In Spring after the melting of the snow or after rain these are much more spectacular but in Summer they are much less enthusiastic but welcomed in the summer heat.

Jean, Hans and Gab keeping an eye out for Drop bears.

What happens to the bush after a bad fire, this one having gone through in 2007. Normally the gum trees regenerate with a 'furry' regrowth of leaves after the first rain but if the fire is particularly intense it kills the trees and it will take decades for the smaller trees growing beneath them to mature to the same size. Now that the taller trees' cover is gone the smaller trees have a chance to get extra sun and grow faster than they normally would. The new trees can be seen all around the dead trees in this pic.

The lookout at the chalet side of Mt Buffalo. This is a popular hang gliding down to the Buckland and Ovens Valleys below. In tyne distance you can see more of the Australian Alps with Mt Bogong, Mt Feathertop and Mt Hotham in the distance.

Mt Buffalo Lookout

Han's pano of the Lookout

The old Mt Buffalo Chalet which fell into disuse after the 2007 fires. The mountain was closed after the fires and the Chalet's owners went broke. This was a very popular place for honeymooners in the 20's and 30's. People would come up by train to Porepunkah and the bus would meet them and drive them up the dirt road to the chalet. It used to have a catch phrase like, "The Resort In The Sky" or something like that. It was owned by the government owned Victorian Railways and I recall seeing old black and white advertising pics of the Chalet and lookout in the carriages when I bought the train from Cobram to Melbourne. I used to think it looked sooooo exotic and so far away...

Have fun but be ready to evacuate! I guess having a wooden building in the middle of a bush fire prone place you have to be prepared! Behind are the croquet rinks which are obviously not in use. Again I remember seeing pics of people playing on these rinks on the train thinking it looked so sophisticated and very English.