Saturday 1st October
Michael decided to take an unorthodox route to Wangarratta so our first stop was the small town of Numurkah for his coffee hit. Like many of the small towns we have visited its main street is littered with empty shops but there are some interesting murals. Some of them were done by the artist who did the silo art at Tungama, Sobrane.
From here we travelled on to our second stop of the day at Yarrawonga. I visited here several years ago on my road trip with June and knew that it would appeal to Michael.
The town is situated on the southern bank of the on Murray River but the main attraction is Lake Mulwala, which was formed by the damming of the River. The lake is a popular location for activities such as boating, kayaking and fishing. Such a large expanse of water makes it feel as though you are on the coast.
Once settled into our recently flooded van park in Wangaratta our friends Libby and Eric called around to see us. They have recently relocated from Darwin and have decided to settle in Wang, as it is affectionately called around here. They are currently staying with friends in town before they take up their next house sitting gig. The 6 of us enjoyed a very pleasant dinner at The King River Cafe at Oxley.
Sunday 2nd October
As luck would have it Libby and Erics next housesit is at a property at Glenrowan and today the Birdlife Ovens and Murray Group were doing a survey there. While Michael stayed home and found himself a nice coffee shop and caught up on the washing, the Smiths picked me up for a morning of birding. Meeting time was a bit later than I am used to , being 10am rather than 8. It was a pleasant morning although the bird numbers were low but we did see a Crested Shrike-tit and a Horsefields Bronze Cuckoo. We left at the lunch break, returning to town to have lunch with Michael.
Monday 3rd October.
As the Smiths had other engagements today we headed over to Winton Wetlands, as the cafe came highly recommended.
Back in the 1980s Michael came to Winton Raceway a couple of times and recalled a large expanse of water close to the Highway. This was Lake Mokoan created in 1971 for both economic and recreational purposes. Unfortunately, the lake failed as an effective water storage and was decommissioned so in 2010 the site was re-formed into the Winton Wetlands Reserve.
You would think they should have been easy to find but we should know better than to rely on Mr Google's directions as after a rather convoluted route we ended up at a Road Closed sign. We did venture along it for a couple of 100m before deciding it just wasn't right. So back we went, ignoring Mr Google's next suggestion and simply following the signs to the cafe.
Over a well-earned drink we decided which bits to visit as it is a very extensive site. We began with a stroll in the vicinity of the cafe which has an interesting variety of art works.
From here we travelled on to Robertson's Hill for a short walk before heading to Boggy Bridge Road for the Art Circuit...only to be faced yet again with a Road Closed sign!
From here we completed the silo art circuit which I had visited with June a couple of years back. It was good to see some works completed since then and also some new ones in St James. They demonstrate local history and people, including G.J. Coles who had his first store in St James.
By the time we returned to Wangarratta it was a quick clean up before joining the Smiths and their hosts John and Yve for a bbq.
Tuesday 4th October.
As we were heading to Canberra on Wednesday we were hoping to leave the van in Wangaratta. Our current park wasn't keen to have a van in storage as they are subject to flooding. We found another park which was happy for us to leave our van so first job was to pack up and leave park 1. We couldn't move into park 2 until the afternoon so we left the van in the street then spent the day being chauffeured by Eric.
Stop 1 was Beechworth, a well-preserved historical town famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. It has a large number of historical buildings which Eric was able to share details about, having been a school excursion destination in a past life.
We explored the Chinese Garden before taking the circuit to the Woolshed Falls which were flowing really well after the recent rains.
From here we travelled onto Yackandandah a small village which by 2024 plans to achieve self-sufficiency in energy supply, based on solar power.
We drove back via Mytrelford and Milawa, where we stopped at the Cheese and Bakery store. We were only just in time but managed to pick up some delicious cheeses and finally found some pickled walnuts!
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