No rest for Team Burton this Boxing day: another day of
adventure waited.
After breaking camp at bright it was straight up – up the
Victorian Alps. Our task was to cross the Alps at Mount Hotham. It was a steep
and winding road that had me a tad nervous at times but Rod and Scooby were up
to the task. We started at Bright with
an altitude of 200m and reached the top at about 1800m with Bullseye in tow. Amazingly, there were several cyclists
churning away up the mountain also. Crazy! The scenery was stunning and Victoria again
proved its reputation for dodgy weather unwarranted. Sadly, we were about 5 months early for the
ski season.
The drive down the other side of Mount Hotham is a rather
tame business and winds itself gradually down through Snow Gum and Alpine Ash
forests followed by farmland. We were spoiled for choice at Omeo which had two
cafes open on Boxing Day for lunch. We
had been told that the whole state of Victoria mobilises on Boxing Day. Up
until now, we saw very little evidence, but the stretch between Omeo and Sale
proved it so. As the afternoon wore on, the traffic increased and every third
car was toting either bikes, canoes, thatches of fishing rods, tinnies,
caravans, camper trailers, roof racks full of gear or a combination of the
above. And that’s not exaggerating. We
counted them; it really was one car in three.
We passed through Bairnsdale and were all stunned when Rod said he did not want a photo. Rod is becoming obsessed with taking photographs and has gone through 3 sets of lithium batteries in nine weeks. He averages about 30-40 a day. And thats not exaggerating, we counted them. I think it is an illness, but he keeps saying that we will thank him one day. So I guess what I am trying to say is that Bairnsdale is pretty ordinary.
Rod had booked ahead to ensure we had a place to stop and
while sensible, it probably wasn’t necessary. Evenso, we were able to roll into
Sale knowing we had a place to sleep and prepare for our journey across Bass Strait.
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