It was a dark night so we were well hidden from passing car lights, 2 other campers came in as well. We did get up early in case we had to move on quickly. It was a cold night and morning, the winter PJ’s are coming out tonight.
We arrived in Bright just after 8am, filled in time taking a drive around the area and then later going for a walk until the Tourist Info place opened up. We then had to fill in another hour or so until we could check in the Riverside Van Park.
Bright is a nice country town, people seem friendly and it’s very nice and popular along the Ovens River. It would be really lovely to see snow on the surrounding mountains. The trees are only just starting to change colour. The place was soon packed. Bikes are a really big deal up here, you feel out of place not having one. It soon warmed up and was a nice temperature for shorts and T/shirts.
Just before 11am we went to check in the van park, only to be told the people who were on our site had not checked out yet (checkout is at 10am). We checked out the park while we waited, which is situated right on the Ovens River across from the centre of town. There is a walk that loops around the park, crosses over a bridge and along the town side of the river and back over another bridge. It seems it’s very popular with everyone in town as all day people have been doing the loop. We sat on the water’s edge and watched the ducks while we waited for the people to pack up and move on, they were certainly not in a hurry even after being told by the management to hurry up. 11.45am they finally pulled out. We were set up in only a few mins enjoying a cuppa on the banks of the river.
The park is in a good position, the downside is the constant people walking through; there are notices up about securing your belonging. The park is full, every cabin and site taken, there are many different groups here and some keep coming back every year, one lady has been coming here for 40 years. Most people are booked in for at least 7 nights. Powered sites for 2 people are, ouch $49 the dearest we have every paid, all the parks in the area cost around the same, one was $59 a night they are all full.
The town side of the river was packed with people everywhere having picnics on the banks under the beautiful big trees, some brrr even went for a swim, after how cold it got last night and this morning that water was not going to be warm enough for these Queenslanders. We did the loop and spent time photographing the ducks.
We often say parks don’t provide us with much, full of people, noisy screaming kid next door and for our $49 they tell us we can only have a 3 min shower. One plus of a park is we get to have longer showers and leave the water running while we get washed, instead of the quick wet down we get in the van, so for $49 we thought we might have a shower that was a tad longer.