High Country diversion 2 Day trip

 Bright was very busy when we arrived and we were glad we planned to stay at Freeburg about 13 klms south of Bright . This lovely park has lots of permanents and is very shaded with lots of trees and is beside the Ovens River. We were given a site on the "green" which we had to ourselves.
 When we were planning this part of our trip we thought we might do a camping trip, but after talking to the staff at the Info Centre we took the instructions for a day trip to Falls Creek and back to Bright via Omeo and Mt Hotham. We were glad we changed our minds as the weather that day turned really nasty.

 From Lookout ,looking towards Mt Beauty township

 From Bright the road is very winding as it goes over the range to Mt Beauty, this is an old Hydro town where we stopped for a bit of a look around . There was a very interesting model of the Hydro scheme in the area at the Information Centre. By the time we arrived here it was raining and quite cool.

 As we headed out of town the road got steeper and windier, and continued like this nearly all the way back to Bright. Not far down the road we stopped ar an underground power station which unfortunately no longer runs tours of the facility.

 Bogong Village was another stop on the way where we drove down a steep road to the lakeside . Again it was an old Hydro town which is mainly just some accommodation for tourists and an outdoor education centre.

 At Fainter Falls we took the time to walk up to get better views of the falls. the walk wasn't too far for Lynn and was easy going . 

 Fainter Falls

  We were  very lucky that the sun was out when we walked to the falls as by the time we reached Falls Creek that weather was really closing in and not long after it started to rain quite heavily. We were very disappointed in Falls Creek as we thought there might have been more places open for summer visitors but it is all geared to the winter activities  so only a bistro was open for lunch. the staff were very nice there and when we went to leave they provided us with garbags  so we could get to the vehicle wihtout getting too wet.

Main hotel at Falls Creek

As we drove across the plains on top of the mountain there was low cold and with the rain the visibility was very poor, so we didn;t stop and walk to the huts that are strategically placed across the top. It was strange driving across this area as there were almost no trees except for some stunted snow gums .

 By the time we got to Omeo it was getting late and still raining a bit so we decided to push on .

Mt Hotham was another wind swept place and we were driving along the road above the clouds at times.

 Our last stop along the way was at Dinner Plains. This is an artificial place with all the lodges of similar design. We didn't get back to the van till 6pm although we left about 8.30 am so it was quite a long day and nearly dark when we got home.