Day 14 Home via the Yarra Valley

Back to Melbourne but first a quick visit to Eldorado to an historic gold dredge marooned in it's own pond

Eldorada Gold Dredge

Control levers

Processing drum to the right

Switch board for controlling the winch motors and other gear

Winch motors below deck

After we drove past Bonney Doon on Lake Eildon (Hans will soon understand the meaning of "Aaaah the serenity...") we drove through the bush fire ravaged town of Marysville for a coffee, then though the Black Spur and The Yarra Valley back to Melbourne.

Yarra Valley

Black Spur

Day 13 Rutherglen Cobram

Each day starts with a coffee at Provendors...

Beechworth...noted for it's period buildings from the Gold Rush era

Not far from Beechworth are Woolshed Falls...very pretty

Han's pano of Woolshed Falls

Woolshed Falls

We drove to Rutherglen to visit and old school friend of mine, Ann. Her Border Collie had recently given birth to a litter of pups that were unbelievably cute!

Pups and Ann's French shoes, she was proud of both :-)

We had lunch with Ann and her friend Melissa at Jones's Winery...great food and surroundings.

Jones Winery

We drove on to Yarrowonga, then to Cobram and Yarroweyah where I grew up. This pic is the Murray River, at Thompson's Beach which is the border between Victoria and New South Wales. A bit of a trip down memory lane for me and I trust it wasn't too boring for my fellow passengers...

Cobram

Back to Beechworth late...

....we picked up a couple of pizzas and enjoyed the day turning into night with the assistance of some mosquito coils!

Day 12 Mt Buffalo

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

Mount Buffalo National Park 

Wikipedia Mount_Buffalo_National_Park

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.

Looking towards The Horn which is the highest pint of Mt Buffalo. 

The country looks really different on this side, fabulous rocky outcrops.

Hans tossing up if he is really looking at Alps or not...looking South towards Mt Buller and the general direction of Melbourne.

The Horn Lookout

The Horn Lookout

The Horn Lookout

And finally when we got home, of course back out to the balcony and a pre dinner drink-poos! :-)

Day 11 Beechworth in North East Victoria

Off into the country again for a few days...up the Hume Highway across the Great Dividing Range to Beechworth to the the home of Jean, a mutual friend who met Hans with Gabby and I in 2007 in Asolo.

The land is generally flat on the other side of the divide but around Beechworth are rolling hills with beef and sheep farms and more lately wineries and olive groves. This time of the year the grass dries out and the hues are generally browns and golds with the native trees providing an Australian shade of green.

On the way up we stopped in the gourmet region of Milawa famous for it's wines, cheeses, mustards and other gastronomic distractions. We stocked up on some goodies to be consumed later...

Jean's house, an 'old' (by Australian standards) local granite house built in the 1860's about a decade after the establishment of Beechworth.

Jean's place is surrounded by trees and gardens which were soothingly cool in the heat. Next few days were about 32°c but a clear heat.

Jean's kitchen.

Gabby made a batch of scones so we retired to the comfort of the verandah.

Scones, tea, double cream and locally made raspberry jam...yum!

Then before dinner we drove around the Beechworth Gorge just above Jean's house.

The Cascades in the Gorge. This time of year the water levels are a bit low but at least they are flowing. You can;t get a sense of the drop here but they flow down over a series of drops through pools in eroded in the rocks. Great on a hot summers day...well, we weren't prepared to get into our bathers but I'm sure it would be nice...

Cascades

Gabby and Hans at the cascades

Han's pano of The Cascades

Pre dinner drinks and nibbles in the garden

We bought brie, blue vein and, to Han's delight, Tomme in Milawa. I'll leave it up to Hans to assess the quality but needless to say he was surprised to see tome outside of France.