Surprising Benalla,

G'day Mates,

I really don't know why I had the idea that Benalla would be a dusty, old fashion little town but the opposite is the truth. We were impressed of all the beautiful wide shady lanes and all the water they have. Most probably the idea came because its situated in one of the most dry area's in Victoria and we always heard from far "family" living near Benalla that they have draught problems.

A very nice art sculpture situated on the bank of Lake Benalla;

Benalla not only has a lake but also a river , called "Broken River", the bridge you see is called "Monash Bridge".....

Look at the Wall to Wall street art; just a few impressions;

(Sorry for the ugly green wall in front)

But also the shopping area is very nice. We are house sitting only 40 k's from Benalla and because its bigger than Mansfield, which is only 20 k's from us, we went a few times to Benalla for shopping.

And of course during these shopping visits we always took our lunch and found us a nice spot for a bite and a drink.....

A few nice statues/buildings.....

The only disadvantage at this house sitting is that the reception of the Internet is very bad. I'm sorry mates but I'm struggling all morning to get a decent story here but it takes ages, that's why this story is maybe a bit short. Still I hope you liked Benalla and hope I'd given it a good impression.

I'll make it up another time!

Till then!

Cheers!

  

I am so sorry

G'day mates!

I really have to apologise because I'm not in a position to treat you with a story this weekend. Yesterday I had to collect my new glasses in Benalla which took about the whole day and today we went by bike to Bonny Doon to a music festival. I thought it would be food for a nice story but unfortunately the party was already nearly over but in one of my future blogs you will get a glimpse of it.

Hopefully I'll have time next weekend as I've got a lot to tell, so keep on looking.

Be patient, Till then.

Cheers!

Mount Buller

G'day Mates,

Yes, we had some time to do a tour and this was a very nice one. We went to Mount Buller which is a town located in the Shire of Mansfield in the Victorian Alpine region. The town is located approx. 208 kilometres north/east of Melbourne. Mount Buller as Mountain is 1805 mtr high and so is popular with snow sports enthusiasts in winter due to its close location to Melbourne.

After entering the entrance of the resort (no fee) we were warned for crossing gnomes

and a little later we came across their little community ;

The road up to Mount Buller is very windy and steep and sometimes I found it scary, even in summer so what about winter, brrrrrr

Nearly at the top they are trying to get you excited for the ski-sport. Normally we would have but with 34 degr. you can hardly think about snow....

But finally at the top we found out that the temperature was much lower which is of course very logical at 1805 meter high. I went to the information centre and was confirmed that the walk I had chosen, was one of the best so we decided to start walking....

We first passed the Northside Express lift which looked very good....

Old fashion chair haha.....

Luckily they have better chairs now, nicely packed away for the summer

We, being used to skiing in Austria, were really amazed by the size of this ski resort, we counted 15 chairlifts so I reckon you wouldn't get bored here spending a week skiing. Wonder if they have Gluhwein......

We go on with our walk which is called "Summit Nature Walk", for your information....

Down there at the parking spot, the walk comes from the left and continues to the right but you can do a short but steep side track to the Summit Marker and the Fire Lookout....

Coming to the upper ski-lifts I thought that was the end but no, my god, when I saw the path going up even more, I didn't know if I would dare to walk up there...........

Concentrating on the path and not the steep side slopes, we managed to get up to the highest (1805) top....

The Fire Lookout, Gee, the man in there has to walk up this steep path every day brrr....

The Marker

going down again....

so glad we were back safe....

Continue with our walk towards the south side, we are halfway now....

Look at the fire lookout on top, that's where we were.....

Its hard to see on the picture but via this very steep little path we meandered our way back to the car.

May be a sudden stop but unfortunately both my batteries of my camera were empty so this was the last picture, luckily we were nearly back at the car so you didn't miss anything except our lunch, but who cares..... you've seen that so many times before, it was the usual stuff....

See you next time

Cheers!