06 April 2011 - Porepunka - Alpine region S/E Victoria.

 

On the move to the next & final camp for cycling, which is near the township of Bright.  And bright it will be in a few more weeks, as the streets are lined for many, many kms with autumn trees, but unfortunately we are a few weeks too early.  They have an annual autumn festival which would have been great, but that's way it goes.  I was very disappointed as I would dearly have loved to capture it with my camera.  On arrival we had a good look around the town & purchased our new supplies, then round our way to the camp for lunch. This new camp is once again on a river (they have rivers everywhere here, all coming down from the mountains of course),  & we chose an unpowered site again to keep costs down, so were able to be on the river flat.  We were all supposed to get an $8 discount, but it still cost $26 for unpowered, $31 for powered.  However, the ablutions etc are good & our group are the only campers here apart from one young couple who are only staying one night so we can make as much noise as we like at our campfire gatherings.   After lunch Stu & I decided to cycle another part of the rail trail, as we had been told about a very nice berry farm which also makes their own icecream.  It was only 15km & all flat, but it was quite hot, so a 'berrylicious'  icecream parfait with layers of berries was  just the thing when we arrived.  IA great pick-me-up to get us back on the return 15km.  I had wanted some fresh berries too, but the season had finished, so we purchased 500gms of frozen mixed berries - blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, & youngberries.   Yum!  Should keep our tastebuds satisfied for quite a while.  Tonight our tour leader decided we needed a bedtime story, so read us one of the Roald Dahl tales, his version of Cinderella.  It is absolutely hilarious, & we all enjoyed it so much she has promised to read us another tomorrow night.

Day 2:
Another beautiful morning - we have been so lucky with the weather here.  It is cold first thing in the morning, - have I mentioned it was down to 1deg one morning?  We are of course right under the mountains, but the days though are brilliant.  The 'gun' riders are off to prove themselves again today by riding up Mt Buffalo, which is even harder than the 110km one they previously did though not so long.  It's just a long slow grind up & up.  A number of us have opted to drive up & do some of the wonderful mountain walks up there.  The riders left camp at about 8am, & we sensible people left at about 9.30am.  About halfway up we caught up with them, but poor things were miserable, as they had road works & they had been held up for 20mins.  Some of the cars had been waiting 40mins.  When you are cycling hard uphills it is the worst thing to have to stop as it's very hard to get started again, especially when your muscles have totally cooled down.  Luckily for us we came at the tail end, so only waited about 10mins.  So we continued up the mountain & hoped they made it.  I have to say the scenery was amazing - fantastic views of fertile valleys way, way below, more of the white, skeletal gums which have been razed by fires long ago, & the most amazing rock formations I have ever seen.  We stopped for a short walk before the top to a lovely little waterfall, but again it was the rock formations & colours of the rocks which we loved.  The water was crystal clear & it must be totally mindblowing in winter when the snow melts & the water crashes down them. Quite frightening too I imagine.  After that we drove right to the top of Mt Buffalo itself  which has a large rock formation called 'The Horn'.  On the way up the rocks were unbelievable.  There is one called 'Torpedo Rock', a huge oval shaped specimen just balancing on almost nothing & it is huge.  Around every corner we got more & more excited.  On arrival at 'The Horn' the views are just spectacular even before you climb up a steep rocky staircase to the lookout tower.  This is all granite rock - so quite gritty & not slippery.  Once up the lookout it makes you almost speechless.  We could see the whole mountain range, from Mt Kosciuszko (in NSW) , Mt Bogong (highest mountain in Vict), Mt Beauty, & others I can not name, & we were on top of Mt Buffalo.  It wasn't the clearest view ever although very hot & sunny, but still spectacular.  We took SO many photos between us.  There were a  couple of abseilers just packing up their gear as we got to the top - disappointed to have missed that.  Had lunch in the little picnic area, then headed down the mountain again, past the giant's playground, a huge area of small boulders everywhere on a flat plain, & headed to our next walk.  We intended to walk the Cathedral walk, but when we got to the rocks of that name, discovered it was only for climbers - would see why, - so we continued on to one called 'The Hump'.  Very steep, more a climb than a walk, & the end bit we had to climb up big rocks (Stu had to haul me up a few as my short legs couldn't even reach the first foothold).  There was this tiny lookout right on top of this HUGE pile of rocks all balancing on each other.  Even Stu felt precarious he said, but funnily enough none of the heights have affected me as they have such good strong rails around them.  I think it's because I can't take my eyes of the views & don't worry about the height.  Well we're starting to feel a bit tired by this time, but one more to go.  After another drive further back down the mountain, our next destination was to the old 'Chalet' built in the 1800's for tourists.  A beautiful old building which was abandoned for some time as Mt Buffalo is not really a good ski area.  However, I think it is now used for tourists who walk, climb etc.  The area around is gobsmacking.  (I'm running out of adjectives).  There are about 6 lookouts, & it's absolutely incredible, the views way, way  down to the lush valleys below & the distant mountains, & sheer, sheer rock faces.  If you have ever been to the Blue Mountains it is similar, but I think more breathtaking.  We did our last little walk down to a waterfall which fell down 100's & 100's of mtrs down a sheer cliff, formed over a period of 3 million years.  Our last lookout was at Prophet rock & to climb up to this tiny little lookout (held 2 only), you had to bend down & climb under a monstrous balancing rock, then squeeze through a little narrow bit, where you look straight down that amazing sheer cliff.  Totally awe inspiring.  By that time our legs were saying take me home, so back to camp after a wonderful experience.  Our cyclists had made it home only about 1/2 hr before us, so everyone was very tired that night, but we still gathered round the campfire as we & a few others were leaving next morning.  We had another Roald Dahl bedtime story, this time 'The Three Little Pigs' another hilarious version.  Must try & find the book somewhere.