VICTORIA'S GREAT ALPINE WAY
Now that the last stretch of graded road on this route has finally been sealed, it is a pleasure to drive from Albury or Wangaratta on the New South Wales border to Bairnsdale, Bruthen or Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland, right across the mountain tops of the State of Victoria in an average family saloon car and hundreds of people are now doing just that at any time throughout the year.
Approaching from New South Wales, one can plan a loop trip using this route, then travel northwards up the east coast to return to Sydney, Canberra or wherever the person's starting point may have been. It is also great to be able to set out from Melbourne and travel via the Hume Highway to Glenrowan, then branch off north eastwards to join the Alpine Way, continuing along it, finally dropping down to the coast at Lakes Entrance, Metung or Paynesville - eventually returning to Melbourne via the Princes Highway, through Sale and Warragul, which makes for a very pleasant and relaxing country trip.
We set out to cover this loop out of Melbourne recently, planning for a week away, using an 18 year old Ford Laser in good condition. It was just at the end of the snow season and we hoped to see some on the mountain tops. We prebooked some pleasant B&B accommodation and set off on a quiet Sunday morning. Our first stop was for lunch at the Chinese restaurant in Seymour, then we skirted Glenrowan and cut across to Milawa, where we spent some time tasting superb cheeses in the cheese factory there. We also visited Brown Brothers Winery and indulged ourselves in their elegant Epicurean Centre, where we tasted a few wines and ate a few accompanying savouries. They really treat you well in this place and it only cost a few dollars, including all the tastings and your choice of a glass of wine.
From here we diverted a little off the route to spend a couple of nights in the Old Priory at Beechworth, a prime historic gold township where everyone is so friendly to tourists. Spotless single rooms including a good breakfast cost $35 each, but there are great double and family rooms too for a little more. Grand bathrooms are just along the corridor. They also have a two bedroom flat and cottages in the grounds at greater cost for nightly rental and they left us enough food for half a dozen, although there was only the two of us. The gardens are lovely and it is an elegant old nunnery. We really enjoyed our stay there.
There are so many interesting buildings around Beechworth that one day is not enough to see them all. There are the grand historic pubs and the superb post office, the old court house and gaol cells, the Bourke Museum, a really great old fashioned lolly shop, the exotic Chinese Burning Towers out in the cemetery, Lake Sambell, the old prison, forest drives, a lavender farm, horse drawn carriage tours around town, the old powder magazine, the opal cave and some great places in which to eat, probably the most famous of which are Tanswell's Hotel and the Beechworth Bakery.
Next day we drove back to the Alpine Way (about 20 minutes drive) and continued eastward through Myrtleford, a town with a major population of Italian folk, all busy in the tobacco industry and those who don't have a tobacco farm are sure to own a vineyard. The unusual shaped tall iron buildings to be seen are tobacco drying kilns and there's a historic one relocated alongside the road with an explanatory notice alongside, so watch out for it. The road continues and soon Mount Buffalo can be seen rearing up on the right-hand side of the road. Again a diversion can be made up past the lake and through the national park to the top of the mountain, where stately old Mt Buffalo Chalet can be found, perched on the edge of a dramatic precipice, with views that stretch for almost 100 kilometres on a very clear day. The chalet is popular all year round and offers a wide range of accommodation of all kinds at all prices, with or without three meals a day, ski packages in winter and special festival and arts packages throughout the other seasons. There are games rooms, bars and entertainment plus a swimming pool to be enjoyed here, as part of the hotel's amenities.
On this occasion and because the weather was quite bad, we did not divert up to the Chalet, having stayed there several times before, but continued on a little further to Bright, where we were booked into the four star Delany Lodge, right on the Great Alpine Way, where we were accommodated in a very superior three bedroom unit with gardens, a private garage adjacent to the unit, our own well equipped laundry with washing machine and tumble drier, a modern bathroom, large living room and very well equipped kitchen. We loved it. From here we were able to visit the delightful Maze in the nearby historic village of Wandilagong, enjoy a show at a dude ranch and feed emus and deer at the deer farm, where one could eat in their excellent restaurant and depart with a haunch of venison, if one could afford it. There is great trout fishing in the Ovens river here, plus several local wineries and the Tourism Information centre in the main street has swags of free literature and a great film to view for free in their theatrette.
From Bright one can divert to Mt Beauty, which is well worth it, if you have time to spare. Stay in four star yurt accommodation at Mt Beauty Holiday Centre, on the river bank and with lots of activities to keep the kiddies happy. It has an adjacent small caravan park. The family yurt shaped units are great and the kids will love them. They have everything you'll ever need and the pub just up the road has some excellent evening meals at fair prices.
We departed from Bright in chilly fog and climbed up Mount Hotham, nearly having a contretemps with a kangaroo that came out of the bush on one side very suddenly. I don't know who was the more surprised, him or us. There was snow all over the peaks, but it was raining hard so, on this occasion, we missed out on the magnificent views normally seen from up here. We passed all the ski lodges and lifts and then began our descent via Dinner Plain. Their are scores and scores of tight bends on this road, so it needs careful driving, especially if like us you do not have power steering and there is bad weather making the driving less enjoyable. Dinner Plain is a village of incredibly shaped ski chalets, which have to be seen to be believed, so just divert and cruise slowly through the village to marvel at the variety of buildings to be seen there. It now has an air strip and skiers can fly directly in from Melbourne airport in well under an hour, which is great, if you can afford it.
Just before we came into the little old gold township of Omeo, we diverted to explore the old Chinese diggings, which are worth a few photographs. Then we found our B&B in the main street - Snug as a Bug, it is called and it has its own small cafe attached. They have three guest bedrooms downstairs, each with small, spotless ensuite bathrooms and all share one large lounge and kitchen. The lounge has a three quarter pool table, magazines, television, vcr and comfy lounges. The kitchen is very well equipped, with food being supplied for make your own breakfasts and a country table that seats a dozen people. There is also a large spa room for those who wish to take advantage of it. We bought locally caught fish and had a grand dinner with others in that kitchen, but it rained so loudly all night that our sleep was quite disturbed. Just bad luck, of course. We bought a few nice things in a couple of galleries there, visited the little historic museum and the old pubs and then moved on to Bruthen, where we stopped for a morning cuppa and some divine fruit cake from the local bakery. We wished afterwards we'd bought a supply to take away with us, it was that good. By now we'd just about completed the Great Alpine Road route.
We stopped for lunch in Nowa Nowa, on the banks of Lake Tyers, where we had a very pleasant lunch in Ramsdell's cafe, gallery, milkbar, caravan park, souvenir shop and gas station combined - it is that sort of unhurried place and Mike is always very welcoming. He told us, as he made our pumpkin soup and toasted sandwich lunch that the local primary school children had executed some wonderful aboriginal murals we ought to see, so we diverted as directed and found the place. The proud headmaster of this little country school told us they'd won the national award for the school that had done the most towards reconciliation with the aboriginal race. They teach the local aboriginal language there, so each child, black, white or coffee coloured becomes bilingual. Aboriginal legends are also taught and the wonderful murals all round a building on the property were designed and carried out by the children, each of whom has their own handprint in Northern Territory ochre incorporated in the colourful rainbow serpent design.
From here we carried on down to Lakes Entrance, where we were booked into Lazy Acre Log Cabins, a great favourite of ours. The McCubbins have 10 authentic and spacious log two and three bedroom cabins, an adventure playground, big barbecues, a swimming pool and large spa pool and it's set well back from highway noise, but five minutes walk from the seafront shopping centre. A great place to stay for under $100 nightly. We took a Peel's boat cruise to Metung, visited the Fishing Cooperative and bought fresh fish to cook each day, walked along Ninety Mile Beach when the rain stopped, took another boat cruise - the 'Corque'- to Wyanga Winery, visited the Shell Museum & Aquarium and the excellent Tourist Information Centre and called in at the big family fun park on the highway at the eastern side of town. We were very surprised to see real lions here, as well as alpacas, monkeys and many other imported creatures in addition to all the rides, water chutes, mini golf etc. Children must really love this place.
By now we'd been away best part of
a week, so we headed off to the Jolly Jumbuck store out of Bairnsdale
to buy some great sweaters in their end of winter sale and then made
our way back to Melbourne via the excellent Princes Highway.