Bright and Mt. Buffalo

 The town of Bright.

Crystal Brook Falls.

 The walls of the Gorge.

 A part of the Cathedral Saddle at the summit.

An Australian snowman - who knew?

Saturday, August 27^th

I got up early and decided to drive north to the town of Bright. I had heard lots of good things about Bright and the surrounding area. It is up near Beechworth and when I went there with Graham and Tess I thought we were going to visit Bright but we didn't. Anyway, it is on the Great Alpine Road and one of the touristy towns in the Victoria ski areas.

The main part of the drive was north-east on the Hume Freeway until just before Beechworth. Then a right turn onto the Great Alpine Road. I had pre-booked a motel just outside of Mt. Buffalo National Park. I arrived about one, checked into the motel and then drove to the town of Bright where I had lunch and looked around this very touristy town for a bit. It's touristy in the winter, because it is one of the few areas in Australia where Australians can see snow and go skiing.

Then I drove back to the motel, (which is actually in a small hamlet called Porepunkah) and the entrance to Mt. Buffalo National Park. There is a road that goes 35km up the mountain and deep into the park. There were several great views of the mountain and a couple of waterfalls. One, Crystal Brook Falls, appears to be falling right off the top of the mountain and falls 300m to the valley below. The end of the road is at the Gorge where there are rocks walls rising 300-400 metres from the valley below and the views are stunning. There is a heritage walk here where you can see the original 100 year old chalet which was meant to rival the railway hotels of the American and Canadian west but was built out of wood instead of stone as originally planned and to learn about the original family that settled up here and led guided trips up the mountain for years. There is also a trail that leads to an overlook of the Crystal Brook Falls from the point where it falls over the edge. Really amazing drop. They abseil from here and as I followed the hiking trails around the area I came across a small wooden platform where hang gliders launch themselves off the mountain. However, seeing this is winter there was no one doing either sport. 

There were a few small patches of snow here and there. I continued to drive up the mountain to as near the summit as possible. It ended in an area where there was a small gondola for taking people up a tobogganing hill. There was more snow here, but it was patchy and the run was closed. The temperature was only about 5 so I didn't hang around here too long.

I spent the whole afternoon walking around the trails before driving back to Bright at dusk. I found a nice little restaurant for dinner and then found the Bright Craft Brewery. The place was packed so I went in and sampled a couple of pints. After which a returned to the Buffalo Motel for the night.