The kids quieten down before the park time of 10pm, so it was a quiet night but it did get a little cool.
The showers are quite good and give a good flow of nice hot water but, they have this industrial exhausted fan that kicks in within a few mins of you having your shower which is providing nice lovely warm steam, which the monster exhausted fan likes to suck away. Now this might be ok when you are on the side of the curtain with the running hot water but when you reach for your towel it is like a dry ice freezer on the other side of that curtain, brrr. Chris was trying to work out a way of disabling their humidity censor, which we think is a bit if a joke for us who live in the sub-tropics and live with humidity. They also have music playing 24/7 in the toilet block which is nice unless you are in the toilet with the speaker.
It is an overcast day today; we got away pretty smartly this morning, heading down the Great Alpine Road doing a big loop, going to Mt Hotham, Dinner Plain, and Omeo, then up the Bogong High Plains Road to Mount Beauty, Falls Creek and back to Bright. Checking out things of interest like huts along the way.
The road up to Mt Hotham is windy and steep. Lots of dead looking trees as you get higher to the top. There was nothing much happening or of interest at Mt Hotham just to say we went there. We then stopped at JB Plain Hut not far from Mt Hotham, it’s very close to the road and surrounded by snow gums it was an interesting hut. We filled up with gas at Omeo before heading along the second part of the loop.
We stopped for lunch at a camp area along a river, would be a very nice place to camp but maybe a bit cold. Another strange behaviour of nature we have encountered that we first noticed at Bright and then many miles away at our lunch spot. Is the dead hoppers on the front of the car are attracting wasps, lots of them, they are even getting to the hoppers on the radiator, fried hoppers must taste and smell good.
The road across from Mount Beauty to Bright is very windy and the first part is not marked, it is marked from Falls Creek onward, the way up to Falls Creek from Bright seems to be the main way in. We stopped at several huts along this road. The first being Faithful Hut, a very steep 700m track, in our opinion not worth the effort as it was not that interesting a hut and a very steep climb back up with loose rocks. My asthma starting giving me some curry and I struggled going back up with a very tight chest. Ventolin was the first thing I grabbed when we got back to the car and will be going with us on every walk from now on end in this area, gives one a bit of a fright.
We then stopped at Cope Hut which was our favourite; it had some really lovely snow gums out the front. And is only a short walk from the car park. It was built in1929 by the Ski Club of Victoria after the state experienced a surge in skiing in the 1920’s. The hut was called “The Menzies of the High Plains” by early skiers and walkers because of its size and comfort. I doubt if they would say that now but it was a nice hut and well worth dropping in and having a look.
We then went to the hut we had most wanted to see “Wallace Hut”, thought to be the oldest hut in the high plains. Built in 1889 from snow Gum slabs and Wollybutt shingles. Again it is surrounded by lovely Snow Gums. Unfortunately for us there was a group of campers near the hut and we had to carefully crop them out of any photos. It did limit us quite a bit and disappointing for us and the weather wasn’t the best but we have to go with what we have.
By this time it was getting quite cold, we had a lovely nice hot cuppa before continuing on. For us Falls Creek snow area was nicer than Mt Hotham we thought it was more interesting and wasn’t quite as deserted as Mt Hotham. We got back to the van about 6pm feeling very warn out.