The Huts of the High Country
Scattered throughout the Australian Alps are more than a hundred historic huts. They date back as far as the 1860s. Many were built as shelters by stockmen grazing their cattle on high country pastures. Others housed fishermen, gold prospectors, foresters, workers on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, skiers and bushwalkers. Today they are used as emergency shelters for skiers and bushwalkers caught out in the changeable mountain weather.
The huts are the antithesis of luxury. Most are simple corrugated iron or wood constructions. Very few are easy to get to. They are tucked away in the back country, far from roads and other services. Over many years of skiing, bushwalking and mountain biking David and I have come across a half dozen or so of these huts. With a few exceptions they are a challenge to find and it is always fun when we come across one. We have never camped out overnight so all the huts in this post can be reached in a day's bushwalk or mountain bike ride from the nearest road.
Scattered throughout the Australian Alps are more than a hundred historic huts. They date back as far as the 1860s. Many were built as shelters by stockmen grazing their cattle on high country pastures. Others housed fishermen, gold prospectors, foresters, workers on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, skiers and bushwalkers. Today they are used as emergency shelters for skiers and bushwalkers caught out in the changeable mountain weather.
The huts are the antithesis of luxury. Most are simple corrugated iron or wood constructions. Very few are easy to get to. They are tucked away in the back country, far from roads and other services. Over many years of skiing, bushwalking and mountain biking David and I have come across a half dozen or so of these huts. With a few exceptions they are a challenge to find and it is always fun when we come across one. We have never camped out overnight so all the huts in this post can be reached in a day's bushwalk or mountain bike ride from the nearest road.
The Great Victorian Rail Trail: Australia's Longest Rail Trail
Trail - The Great Victorian Rail Trail
Location - Tallarook to Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 134 km one way
Terrain - Compacted sand and fine gravel.
Difficulty - Easy to moderate with a few long, steady climbs.
Highlights - Reaching the top of any of the long climbs.
Suitable for - Mountain bikes, touring bikes, walkers and horse riders.
Trail - The Great Victorian Rail Trail
Location - Tallarook to Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 134 km one way
Terrain - Compacted sand and fine gravel.
Difficulty - Easy to moderate with a few long, steady climbs.
Highlights - Reaching the top of any of the long climbs.
Suitable for - Mountain bikes, touring bikes, walkers and horse riders.
Cycling in Victoria: The High Country Rail Trail
Trail - The High Country Rail Trail
Location - Wodonga to Old Tallangatta and Derbyshire to Shelley, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 64 km one way including the Darbyshire to Shelley section
Terrain - Mostly compacted earth with some paved sections.
Difficulty - Easy, this is a ride or walk you can take the family on. The Darbyshire to Shelley section is more challenging.
Highlights - Cycling across the beautiful Sandy Creek Rail Bridge.
Websites and maps - RailTrails Australia and High Country Rail Trail
Extension - Darbyshire to Shelley - 22 km. Not contiguous with the rest of the trail. You'll need a mountain bike for this section.
Location - Wodonga to Old Tallangatta and Derbyshire to Shelley, Victoria, Australia
Distance - 64 km one way including the Darbyshire to Shelley section
Terrain - Mostly compacted earth with some paved sections.
Difficulty - Easy, this is a ride or walk you can take the family on. The Darbyshire to Shelley section is more challenging.
Highlights - Cycling across the beautiful Sandy Creek Rail Bridge.
Websites and maps - RailTrails Australia and High Country Rail Trail
Extension - Darbyshire to Shelley - 22 km. Not contiguous with the rest of the trail. You'll need a mountain bike for this section.
Raymond Island, Victoria
The island is a two-minute ferry ride from Paynesville in the Gippsland Lakes District of Victoria - a reliable place to see kangaroos. Paynesville and Raymond Island are the perfect wildlife tragic's double act. You can read where to find the kangaroos at Paynesville by clicking - here. For my March blog post on Raymond Island, with practical information as well as a description of our visit and lots of koala pictures click - here.
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Raymond Island is a small island in the Gippsland Lakes District of Victoria. It is 7.6 sq km and has a population of about 550 people. The only access is by boat or car ferry. In 1953, 42 koalas were re-located there from Phillip Island as part of a conservation program. They took to their new home so well that today their numbers must be managed to prevent over-population. At last count, in 2013, there were 307.
Yesterday we visited Raymond Island. I was in koala heaven. Without a doubt this is the best place I have ever found to see koalas in the bush - and I feel like I have spent half my life looking. The only other places which come close are a few of the campgrounds along The Great Ocean Road.
Raymond Island, Victoria - the best place to see koalas in the bush.
Yesterday we visited Raymond Island. I was in koala heaven. Without a doubt this is the best place I have ever found to see koalas in the bush - and I feel like I have spent half my life looking. The only other places which come close are a few of the campgrounds along The Great Ocean Road.
Paynesville, Victoria
David doesn't fish - full stop end of story. I think he has traumatic childhood fishing memories - something to do with constantly tangled lines, 5 a.m starts and rough weather on small boats outside Sydney Heads. I have never really gotten to the bottom of it but suffice it to say that one of the world's best fathers could never, ever be enticed to take our sons fishing while they were growing up - no matter how much they pleaded.
Falls Creek Cycling - The Historic Huts Trail.
Terrain - Mountain bike trails - not suitable for road bikes.
Difficulty - Moderately difficult, especially if you return via the Bogong High Plains Rd.
Highlights - The lovely scenery along the aqueducts combined with a sense of total isolation.
Map and Info - click here
Cycling the BennettsTrail: Bright to Wandiligong, Victoria
Terrain - Very slightly undulating, sealed, separate path the whole way
Difficulty - Really, easy
Highlights - Exploring the old gold mining area in Wandiligong.
Map and Info - Finding a map of Bennetts Trail has defeated me. I am beginning to think that such a thing does not exist. However the trail is simple to follow. Just head out of Bright along Coronation Avenue and you can't go wrong.The Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail
The Great Ocean Road - koalas, kangaroos, emus, UFOs and one of the world's great drives.
If there was a prize for the most blogged about attraction in Australia, Victoria's Great Ocean Road would win hands down. I skim, glance at and read a lot of travel blogs and just lately every third blogger on the planet seems to be writing about the Great Ocean Road. I confess that I have blogged about it myself a couple of times. If you want to have a read click - here - and -here.
A bridge too far - or maybe not!
Anyone who follows me on twitter @thelindfields may have noticed my profile picture. It was taken a few years ago at Sandy Creek Inlet on Lake Hume. We were cycling the High Country Rail Trail and we hit a snag.....
High Country Cycling - the Australian Alps
Our first rule of cycling is "find a cycle path separate from the road". Our second rule is "make it a flat one". You might think that Alps and 'flat' are mutually inconsistent but, strangely, in Victoria they are not. It is possible to do all the hard work in the car, then unload the bikes and cycle along the tops of the ridges through magnificent scenery and spectacular views.
High Country Cycling - Part 2
Hot again! Back to the High Country. This time we made it to Hotham. We parked the car at Whiskey Flat - what a great name! - and continued on from where we turned around. The trail became a lot easier but we were never going to be able to do it in one go starting as late in the afternoon as we had.
The Great Ocean Road - the world's largest war memorial (part 1)
The Great Ocean Road is 243 kilometres of National Heritage listed road on the south-east coast of Australia. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 it is the world's largest war memorial - dedicated to the dead of World War I.
The Great Ocean Road - Cape Otway; UFOs, lighthouses and koalas (part 2)
In the early evening on October 21, 1978, Frederick Valentich left Melbourne's Moorabbin airport for a flight to King Island in Bass Strait. Valentich was a 20 year old pilot flying a Cessna 182L. At about 7 pm he was just off the coast at Cape Otway when he and his aircraft disappeared. In the minutes leading up to his disappearance he was in contact with Melbourne Flight Service Control. Having asked the controller whether there were any military aircraft in the vicinity, he described a large object which he said was "playing some sort of game".
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Sydney to Adelaide - Meandering along the Murray.
One thousand, three hundred and seventy-six kilometres - according to Google Maps that's how far it is from Sydney to Adelaide. It feels like more. If you allow for the odd wrong turn, occasional side trip and following the scenic route, it is more - but even in a straight unwavering line it is a long way. If Australians have a national obsession, it has to be travel. At any given moment half the country is out roaming the world in a vast inter-national diaspora. D and I try to do our bit ....