Day 83 – Wed, 20 Oct to Harrietville (near Bright)

A wonderful day for riding; great weather, great roads and feeling on top of the world.

I had breakfast with Bob the publican at Lang Lang, the Palace Hotel if anyone is travelling this way. We chatted and had coffee. The hotel has been in his family for many a year, his grandfather built it and the family still own it.

On leaving I headed in a NE direction letting Josie have her way again. We criss crossed the country NE of Moe through Toongabbie, Heyfield (where I had morning tea at the Bakery), Maffra and finished up hitting the main highway north of Sale.

I passed through grazing country of the Gippsland, through the brown coal belt with power stations to my S, arriving at Bairnsdale around midday. It was decision time. Do I head further E across S Victoria and then N towards NSW at Cann River or Bega, or do I head up over the mountains towards Omeo and Mt Hotham.

I had looked at the weather for the day in all these areas so I decided to head towards Omeo. What a great choice as the riding through the mountains was fabulous (almost had to learn how to ride around bends again after all those straight roads of the past months). The temperature only dropped from around 23C at Bairnsdale to 16C at the top of Mt Hotham.

This took me up through the ski lodges and there were still remnants of the snow around the village and on the slopes from the winter just past. Well not actually snow now but compacted ice, which will not be around for much longer if this weather continues. Although, there was a small fall of snow late last week as that cold front passed through, so who knows how long it will continue.

After Mt Hotham I headed back down the mountain on the N side of the range, dropping from around 1,850m down to 450m at Harrietville where I decided to stay for the night. I was originally heading for Bright (about 20km further N) but this was such a pretty little town that I couldn’t resist staying.

I just got back from a walk to the School Bridge where I spoke to a local and his 11 year old granddaughter. The local school only has about 35 students, so this gives you an idea of its size. Obviously a jumping off spot for the snowfields, but also what looks like a lovely village for the summer.

So I am almost home, with plans to see my son and his family in Canberra tomorrow night, then my other son and his family N of Wollongong on Friday night, and most likely home on Saturday. We’ll see how things progress. Maybe if this fantastic weather and riding keeps up I may just do a U-turn and head back around the country again, the other way. On second thoughts, maybe Robyn would have something to say about that, so I better keep heading in my NE direction.