Victorian Alps

Our first few weeks of 2011 have been spent enjoying more of the Australian Alps with good walks to remote cattle musterers huts, a hot but memorable day up to Mt Hotham and a remarkable variety of Parks camp sites - each uniquely different but all providing a chance for a fire, often a solar shower and occasionally a swim. The earlier rains have promoted greenery and flowers helping to erase the scars of devastating fires in 2003 which covered vast areas of these high and inaccessible tops.

The rough tracks in to the remoter areas filled the van with dust but were otherwise adequate and took us to some very special places in which to spend the night - abandoned gold towns, musterers huts and high plains, deep valleys and dense woodlands. Occasional forays in to the towns for food, gas and fuel gave us the chance to meet friendly ordinary Australians and share their concerns for the people of flooded Queensland.

We head to Melbourne later this week - a minor alternator fault may hasten our progress - before we catch the overnight ferry to Tasmania for 4-6 weeks.

The scenery and wildlife continue to absorb us and we have enjoyed a prolonged dry spell which broke over the last day or two with spectacular storms in Howqua and heavy rain here at Lake Eildon.

Pictures by here and locations by there.