7 Apr 2012 Easter Weekend Getaway continues at Victoria's Great Alpine Valleys (Beechworth-Myrtleford-Mount Buffalo)

BEECHWORTH-MYRTLEFORD-MOUNT BUFFALO

7 April:  Our exciting journey to the great alpine valleys started here. We left Wangaratta and headed to Beechworth.  It was a beautiful town, the colours of autumn blended well with Beechworth's historic buildings.  


Lots of people on the road, some in costumes, celebrating the town's Golden Horseshoes Festival.  

There were old MINI cars on display, a fair, market, etc. 
There was a station where kids could touch farm animals (Mon was even more excited than those kids, I guessed, but Justin - sometimes a kill joy as he is, didn't go along with Dad's wish). 
Mon and Justin had fun riding the cha-cha.  I would probably vomit if I joined them.  We left the festival with yummy Thai paper rolls takeaway for lunch.


This is the St Andrews Uniting Church, an old Gothic Revival design of cement stucco, built in 1857.  Saw the building while walking, trying to find the old brewery and carriage museum, which happened to be closed.

After eating a light lunch from the festival, we drove on the riverside of Lake Sambell through a one way road from Albert Rd to Peach Dr.   There was nothing special so we decided to drive further down to the Golden Horseshoes Monument.

Golden Horseshoes Monument was erected in 1954 to commemorate the famous incident happened in 1855.  It was on the horse with golden shoes where the miners candidate, Donald Cameron, rode into town on polling day for the Victorian parliamentary elections.

We drove to find the Chinese Burning Towers, only to find out that they are situated inside a cemetery.  We stopped by at the place but later decided to stay in the car.  A cemetery tour, with no one around was probably not a good idea. 



We drove further up to Mt Pilot to see the Woolshed Falls.  It's spectacular and unlike the others,  we didn't have to walk a long way to reach the falls.  It's worth a visit if you're coming down to Beechworth.



Next stop was at Powder Magazine.  We wondered what it was when we first saw the sign.  Apparently, this was a heritage building, specially designed to store the gunpowder used for blasting on the goldfields.

We explored the Gorge Scenic Drive, driving along the rocky mountain terrain with spectacular views of granite valleys and at the end was the old Newtown Bridge (and falls) built in 1875 and said to be a fine example of granite structure and Scottish stone-masonry.


 We went to Myrtleford and again was lucky to have the last available room at Golden Leaf Motor Inn.  We didn't wasted anytime.  After we checked in the motel...

....the journey to Mount Buffalo's National Parks began. 
More than an hour drive, following 4 slow cars in front of us.   It was indeed worth the effort.  The  views of the great alpine valleys were simply majestic.  The drive took several lookouts along the way... There's even Lake Buffalo on top of the mountain which reminded us of  Yosemite.  The tall white branches stand out in a bed of green trees were beautiful.   We reached the Mt Buffalo plateau, but the sign told us that there were more to see after another 3 km drive of unsealed roads.  Justin was very eager and so we were. 


And there on top, breathtaking views of Australian Alps. 

We parked our car, took a few photos and continue our journey, a further 1.5 km WALK to The HORN, the summit of Mount of Buffalo.  It was such an experience.






More photos at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3343812947047.148664.1020438581&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.3343812947047.148664.1020438581&type=1