Up, up and away

We knew the drive from Wilson’s Promontory to Mongan’s Bridge was going to be a long one (six hours) and that we were going up and over some hills, but we’d had no idea of just how spectacular the Victorian Alps are. After about the first 2 ½ – 3 hours of driving we started the ascent. Our car, despite it’s 330,000km + on the clock and great age of about 12 years never misses a beat even when towing, but it did protest a bit on this drive.

Not long after we started climbing the warning light for the automatic transmission came on so we stopped and had some lunch while it cooled down. We still had a long way to climb, so for the next hour or so, it was just a matter of driving a bit, then stopping when we needed to for a few minutes, then continuing on again. The scenery was quite spectacular though, and the mountains go on for absolutely ages. Eventually we climbed to around 1,600 m, then things levelled out and the car was much happier. This is about when the gravel road kicked in, which we also hadn’t really been expecting. We had to engage in 4WD at one point to get through one bit, and did wonder how the little yellow Hyundai we passed coming the other way was going to cope with some of it (I suspect they would have had to just turn around). We don’t mind travelling on gravel (we have a 4WD car and an off-road camper trailer after all), and had we not had the previous heating issues, we might have stopped a bit more to take in the view, but by then we just wanted to make sure we’d get through it.

At around the turn-off to Mt Hotham we hit the bitumen again and started the long, windy descent down the other side. At the bottom is a lovely little spot called Harrietville where we stopped for a coffee and to swap drivers. While we were enjoying our coffee (in a little rest area), a couple in a Ford Ranger happened to drive into a ditch and ended up with one wheel up in the air. So we went to see if they were ok, and then offered to snatch them out, tying the snatch strap to the back of the trailer and giving them a bit of a pull. It was a pretty straightforward rescue really – the poor guy had borrowed his brother’s car and I doubt it had ever been off-road in its life (it wasn’t even off road then, just slightly to the side of the road!). We’ve been rescued ourselves plenty of times over the years (on the beach usually) and it’s a no-brainer to help others in need if we can, especially when we have the recovery gear to hand.

Our next stop was still an hour down the road, over yet another little alpine road so we got it done without incident and arrived at Mongan’s Bridge. This is a lovely little campground right on a river. It’s busy of course, being the Australia Day “long weekend”, but we’ve got a nice spot in the corner looking out towards the river and the hills beyond. Because we work to our own timetable, the kids did their schooling on Australia Day while I worked (and they had their schooling in the old Mongan’s Bridge school house too), then we took the next day off to explore the nearby town of Bright.

We’re here for six nights before we move further north to start following the Murray River out to Mildura. We had intended to free camp along the river as there are about a million spots, but after the recent flooding they are all closed for now (or washed away forever) so we’ve had to book into some paid campgrounds instead.