Day 16: Sun 27 Dec: Woods Pt, Victorian High Country 192km

 Wow what an amazing Xmas we had! And the weather! How bizarre. It went down to 12 degrees in Melbourne. We had to hit Big W for warmer clothing!  A bit far from the 46 degrees we'd been told to expect. Thank goodness for our -10 sleeping bags!

And the rain came down in buckets too - 20cm in two days!  Yup, we are the Rainmakers!  Just as long as we have enough left for Longreach :)

So we are heading up to the beautiful Victorian High Country for a few days, old gold mining country and some of the area that were hit by the Black Saturday bushfires in Feb 2009, Australia's worst ever bushfires. 

We packed up and headed off. Then we stopped and went back for the dogs! Yes really! In all our excitement we'd left them in the house!!

We drove out of Melbourne and before long we were winding our way over the range and down the other side into the beautiful Yarra Valley. Then we started to climb again through vast forests of immense eucalypts around Healesville. 

We passed through the idyllic sub Alpine village of Marysville which was almost entirely rebuilt after the fires.  We were now at 844m above sea level and the temperature was now 14 degrees and we were glad of our winter woollies even if we did look like the Bobsy Twins!  We wondered if we were at risk of getting the Bends after being at 12m below sea level at Lake Eyre on a few days earlier!!

We entered the Yarra Ranges National Park at 3pm, 12 degrees and 900m above sea level. This area had been absolutely razed to the ground in 2009 and the heat had been so intense that the towering gums were all dead and white as ghosts. It was absolutely creepy driving along, surrounded by huge bony fingers reaching to the sky brrrr

Wow what an amazing Xmas we had! And the weather! How bizarre. It went down to 12 degrees in Melbourne. We had to hit Big W for warmer clothing!  A bit far from the 46 degrees we'd been told to expect. Thank goodness for our -10 sleeping bags!

And the rain came down in buckets too - 20cm in two days!  Yup, we are the Rainmakers!  Just as long as we have enough left for Longreach :)

So we are heading up to the beautiful Victorian High Country for a few days, old gold mining country and some of the area that were hit by the Black Saturday bushfires in Feb 2009, Australia's worst ever bushfires. 

We packed up and headed off. Then we stopped and went back for the dogs! Yes really! In all our excitement we'd left them in the house!!

We drove out of Melbourne and before long we were winding our way over the range and down the other side into the beautiful Yarra Valley. Then we started to climb again through vast forests of immense eucalypts around Healesville. 

We passed through the idyllic sub Alpine village of Marysville which was almost entirely rebuilt after the fires.  We were now at 844m above sea level and the temperature was now 14 degrees and we were glad of our winter woollies even if we did look like the Bobsy Twins!  We wondered if we were at risk of getting the Bends after being at 12m below sea level at Lake Eyre on a few days earlier!!

We entered the Yarra Ranges National Park at 3pm, 12 degrees and 900m above sea level. This area had been absolutely razed to the ground in 2009 and the heat had been so intense that the towering gums were all dead and white as ghosts. It was absolutely creepy driving along, surrounded by huge bony fingers reaching to the sky ..... Spooky

As we climbed to 1200m above sea level,  the temp dropped down to 8 degrees. The road narrowed and became gravel, bordered by wildflower and mossy tree trunks. We stopped off and the air was cool and moist, heavily scented with menthol and eucalyptus. Just beautiful. 

Soon afterwards we came into Woods Point, a tiny township from the old gold mining days in the late 1800s. It is chock full of history and beautiful walks along mountain streams, with sculptures and quirky bush furniture dotted around. 

We drove into Scott Reserve where we'd planned to camp, saw all the other campers there, including the ones smiling pot, screaming around on dirt bikes and the number of large pigging dogs roaming around completely out of control, and decided to keep going!  Not our idea of an idyllic quiet campground!!

So we drove on about 5 more minutes and turned off along Maori Creek and found a beautiful site by ourselves. It was 5pm by now and extremely cold at 5 degrees so we lit a fire and had steaming hot bowls of curry and garlic naan for dinner, followed by liberal serves of Stones Ginger Wine!

We turned in very early and snuggled up with Sunshine inside the sleeping bag because she was shivering! Spike got bundled up in a blanket in his bed and he was toasty too :)