Mt Beauty

Swifts Creek to Anglers Flat.

Not a big day today. We left Swifts Creek after much discussion about which route to take. Oh well just play it by ear and see how the day looks I suppose. Omeo was less than an hour up the road. Which way... over Dinner Plains, Mt Hotham and on to Bright, or down the Omeo Highway. The Omeo Highway won. About 22km's from Omeo is a place called Anglers Flat. There are several free camps in the area. 

The one we chose was right next to the river and a short walk to the Blue Duck Inn. All the ducks are blue up here... something to do with the temperature. The Blue Duck Inn has rooms, a Bar and an open fire. We walked up for dessert and was passed the menu. "We'd like the sticky date pudding please", "We're right out of that", "OK, how about the Apple Strudle?", "Nup", "Hummm, what about the Triple Choc?"....."OK, I think I can do that, and would you like some bread and butter pudding too?" "Do you have that?"..."Smart A...."  

"Where are you guys from", the Caravan down there?" "Yep", "Is that an Audi?", "No,  it's a VDUB", "Yep, I thought that, an AUDI wouldn't tow that van of yours", "Possibly not". "Hey we're trying to decide which route to take tomorrow, down to Mitta or up over Falls Creek?", "Hummmm, what do you reckon Bert, I reckon if he can make the climb after the turn off he'll be OK?" "Yep", sounds plausible, depends on the weather", "Thanks guys".... Falls Creek it is and we'll see what the weather's like".

Much, much later...."Hey Rose, did you hear that tooting", "Yep, It's the guys from the Blue Duck, there were 10 of them in the one 4x4... they've gone past so they won't run in to us".

Anglers Flat to Mt Beauty...

The High Plains highway was fantastic.  From the time we left the Omeo Highway, it climbed for 36km to about 1800m. We started out below the cloud, then we were in it, and finally above it, and nothing but blue sky above... absolutely extraordinary weather we've been having. Falls Creek opens officially next weekend and they close the Omeo end of the road so we were lucky that it was open, and that the weather was as good as it was. We we're also very lucky that there was absolutely no traffic at all. Not a car passed us in either direction. It's a great place place to visit in Winter... with a heater. We've burned 3lt of diesel in the heater so far!

We stopped and had a coffee and a walk at Falls Creek. It's all pretty dead at the moment, but next weekend is usually pretty busy. They have some great mountain bike tracks but no one uses them.... could be something to consider in January next year.

The road down to Mt Beauty was wider than the way up, but still no traffic, no hard braking, just took our time and arrived safely.

We're now camped at Mountain Creek Picnic area at the base of Mt Bogong. We went for a 10k walk this afternoon up one of the walking tracks. We used the generator for the first time and all went well.... heater is on again tonight!

We're off to Bright tomorrow for a couple of days. We're looking forward to breaking the bikes out over the weekend.