Bright, Smoko & Nug Nug camps, Corryong

Very pleasant drive down to Bright from Glenrowan. Beautiful streets in these alpine towns - avenues lined with magnificent English type trees. I can see why Bright would be so popular in the Autumn. It all feels so like home. Mountains, pine forests, ski villages with accommodation, cafes..... I was surprised at how big the towns seemed - had imagined them to be smaller for some reason.

Made my way to the Smoko Reserve - after missing the turn off as Garmin via Camp6 setting wanted me to go through a paddock. Fortunately there was room to turn around just down the road - and was followed in by another caravan who had the same problem. A very narrow dirt road to get in there but a nice spot beside a stream with a couple of campfire pits and very basic toilet.

Met the guy who has the caravancaravan.com.au website - small world! I have contributed a number of places to his site. He spent some time on his IPad showing me the new features of the site - I might have to go buy and IPad now!!!!
3 of us in here now. Sat around a campfire after dinner which was very pleasant. One couple is here for the Rockabilly weekend at Bright.

Was not happy with the site of wasps in the bank beside the stream - the first time I have seen them over here. Quite a bit smaller than some we have at home so maybe not so aggressive. They were the one thing I was pleased not to find - until now! Also snakes around I am told but have not seen any yet. so peaceful here.

Decided to go the 90km to Omeo without the van - then around to Mt Beauty and back to Bright - so set off. Harrietville is not far then started climbing up into the mountains. WOW - no place to take a van anyway I think. Found the Meg corner I had read about - the one that is a problem when going south as I was. A tight 20km corner and steep up-hill. Also had to pass cyclists -utter  nutters - but then there is a cycle event on next weekend so maybe they are practicing! There is a large area of the mountains that has been burned a few years ago but lots of regrowth. Such tall straight trees.

After negotiating  what felt like hundreds of 30 km bends and constantly climbing I decided to take a break. According to the GPS I had done 10 km - and had only been travelling 30 minutes. I still had 70 km to Omeo -  way too hard I decided and turned around and headed back to Bright. Had lunch there while it poured with wonderful refreshing rain.

A sudden heavy shower here at the camp in the evening also which left the place with a lovely smell of eucalyptus oil.

I was given 2 little trout fresh out of the stream last night by a keen fisherman camped here. Delicious. I had thought of going 2 km down the road to the trout farm - but have now sampled the real thing.  They are very tiny compared to the ones we catch in Lake Taupo  - may be it is because they are in a stream?
I had been puzzling over some unusual high square sheds along the valley. Have been told they are the old tobacco drying sheds from when this area was a centre for tobacco farming. Now there are chestnuts, walnuts, hops, berries - and delicious peaches and corn from a roadside stall.

Nug Nug camp west of Myrtleford is a very pleasant spot with good facilities, plus power and some water. A clean trout stream runs along the edge. It is run by volunteers - $5pp and $5 pn for power. A shame the lovely old trees are infected with a beetle though. The friends from Smoko joined me - another pleasant evening around the camp fire although not late for me - had polished the ute and washed the van plus lots of other little jobs. Then a thunderstorm overnight meant I had to hose everything down in the morning!
Another nostalgic drive today along the Murray-Golburn Highway to Corryong - so like NZ around here. Think Waioweka gorge where it is a bit wider - or Orakei-Korako with the pine forests.