Huts and the High Country

There's something about huts.
Is it the the stories they tell, their history, the remote spots, the vernacular architecture, the flimsiness, the way they laugh in the face of nature?
What is it?

The high country has more then it's fair share of huts that can be visited and appreciated and used if need be.

We've visited quite a few in the New South Wales alps, we have used them as emergency shelters sometimes.
We have also stayed in the old huts along the Overland Track in Tassie.
We even joined the Kosciusko Huts Association at one stage.

So it was nice to visit some huts in the high country of Victoria and take some snaps!

 Howards Hut, built in 1962 for use by cattlemen.

JB Plain Hut, built in 1971 by scouts and venturers 

using material from two other houses.

 Wallace's Hut, built in 1889 by the three Wallace brothers, 

cattlemen of the high country.

 Cope Hut, built in 1929 as a ski refuge.

Great, eh?

In which we take to the railtrails

Northern Victoria is a great place for bike riding.
The old railway lines were removed at some stage and nice even flat or gently graded bike and walking tracks were installed.
What a brilliant idea!

I must admit that this was one of the reasons for choosing this part of the world to visit, that and because it is somewhere that we'd never been before.


It is all very civilised - you can ride from town to town, from cafe to cafe, from winery to winery.
And if you don't want to ride back you can arrange for the nice bike collection people to get you (or in my case the adorable and ever-dependable G)

Ride #1.
From Bright to Myrtleford.

See - nice and flat!

Ride # 2.
From Everton station to Myrtleford.
(It would have been more convenient to start at Myrtleford but we were unsure about the lunching options at Everton, so had a longer drive to start at Everton)

This is where I ended up - at Gapsted wines!
I couldn't push another pedal.

Ride #3
From Milawa, to Milawa cheese factory then to Oxley and back.

Then I fell off!

We have just rewarded ourselves with new bikes!
I love mine.
And I have got a spiffy new helmet - that fits!

G couldn't resist this one - it was a bargain.

 

Our first little adventure in our New Life. Where we go free camping.

Free camping is a big thing to caravanners - or not.

As tent campers we have free camped or cheaply camped for years - national parks, state forests, sides of roads sometimes so it is no biggie for us.
However it is for some people - they are worried (about what?) they are scared (of whom?).
And some people just feel safer and securer in a caravan park, or they like the facilities, of they like the location.
Everyone to their own I say.

We have got all the info - Free Camps Australia book, wiki camps app, the several very helpful, very sharing facebook groups....

So we set off on our first real proper caravan adventure armed with all the gen.

We have been advised not to try and travel too far in a day, so gone are the long 12 hours driving, setting up camp by the headlights of the car....we have become grey nomads - true!
"200 kms max?" What?
"4 hours driving at the most?" Say what??

"Get to camp no later than 3pm"
"Some popular sites fill up quickly" Oh! What??

It's true you cannot travel as fast lugging a couple of tonnes of stuff behind you as you can zipping along with a tent in your boot, so we allowed plenty of time to get from A to B.
In the good old days we would have travelled to northern Victoria in one fell swoop, but now we are learning to be cautious, take our time, stop at places in between that we wouldn't normally stop at.

It's all about the journey now - not just the destination.

Our first night out we headed for Jugiong a little village off the Hume Highway - it had a good rap as a suitable overnighter.

A large open area between the Murrumbidgee River and the Jugiong showgound.
There are toilets there (nicely looked after by the local community), tap water and a dump point for chemical toilet waste (this is a very important resource).
There is a donation box so that you can help the local community to maintain this great spot.

It was a pretty cold spot, a chilly 4 degrees in the morning and a foggy start to the day.
But we were off again towards the Victorian high country, but planning on camping lower down near Bright at a little place called Smoko.

I heard about this free camping spot on one of the facebook groups for camping and caravanning.

This is a really basic camping spot.
There are some old pit toilets (which I didn't even go to inspect) and it appears that some new ones are being built.
It's next to the Ovens River - OK if boiled we reckoned.

The campsite is a little hard to find - as you leave the settlement of Smoko there is a sign that says "campground" but no arrow or any other indication.
You have to turn at the next dirt track, it looks like you are going into a farm or a property.
It's a bit of a bumpy road but if you follow it you get to the little camping area.

Most of the time we had it to ourselves - a couple of nights there were a couple of other campers there.
We stayed for 9 nights as we explored the area, but then I felt like I wanted to move on to a different place.

We tossed around various options - somewhere near Wagga Wagga, taking longer to get home, going a different way home....
So we went to Rutherglen and we camped near the Murray River at Police Paddock camping area.
There are many camping spots along the Murray River.
This one has no facilities and is for fully self-contained campers/caravans.

There were half a dozen other caravanners there.
It is obviously a very popular spot and despite all the lovely big old redgums there is very little wood.
If you want to have a fire, best to BYO wood.

It would have been nice to spend a couple of days there but we decided to come home, back up the Hume Highway and broke our journey at Yass.

This free camping area is next to a sporting oval and beside the Yass River.
The access to the lower part is a bit of a rutted track and I can imagine that it would get very muddy and boggy after rain.
There is also a nice flat grassed area under the trees above the lower flats.
Not surprisingly we were the only campers there that night.

Then we came home!