New Year road trip day 6: Omeo and Glenrowan

Our morning mountain view  

We woke to a cool morning with low cloud hanging over the surrounding mountains. More rain was forecast, but we weren't deterred from our plan to drive south to Omeo through the mountains on a road which included a 46 kilometre stretch of unsealed surface. Uh-uh. Not us. We summitted Mt Kosciuszko, y'know. 

Before heading out of town we had breakfast at the bakery and paid a visit to The Man from Snowy River statue. 

Corryong claims to be the resting place of the man who inspired Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River (which inspired the 1982 movie). It seems pretty dubious, especially since Paterson himself said the character was based on several men, rather than one person. But every town needs a 'hook', doesn't it?

We headed out onto the highway, then turned off onto the back road to Omeo. We were initially surrounded by more bucolic beauty before getting into the mountains. 

Nariel Creek (I think)

 I forget the name of this river. It might be the Gibbo

Rain + gravel roads = muddy car

 Old truck in a paddock

 Old shack in a paddock

Near Omeo - not green right now, but still stunning country

Omeo's Golden Age Motel

We stopped briefly in Omeo then turned onto the Great Alpine Road towards Mt Hotham, one of Victoria premier ski resorts, in the Alpine National Park (not that we'd be skiing, obvs).  

We were up in the clouds by the time we got to Mt Hotham (1,861 metres above sea level) and coming down again with such poor visibility had my nerves a little on edge at times. 

Keep left of the red poles

We stopped in the pretty town of Harrietville for lunch and continued on to Bright. Bright is famous for its Autumn Festival when it's ablaze with spectacular autumnal colour, but it's still a lovely town even on a cloudy day in summer. Visiting in autumn is on my to-do list though. 

  Bright from Huggins Lookout 

Bird likes chips (Not provided by us. As if I

 ever have any leftover fries!)

Back on the road again, we passed this adorable old church, although it's hard to tell if it's still a church or has been turned into a (tiny) home. Just look at it. 

We turned off the Great Alpine Road after Myrtleford heading for Milawa with the intention of taking in the view from Power's Lookout (the old lookout of bushranger Harry Power), but we somehow missed the turnoff and arrived in Glenrowan. We decided to stay the night and go back to the lookout in the morning. 

Any Aussies reading will know Glenrowan is where the bushranger Ned Kelly was wounded and captured by police after a shoot-out.  Or a seige, if you prefer. 

Where it all happened

Glenrowan is all about Ned Kelly.  There's a big Ned Kelly statue, a museum, and the tourist centre, which runs an interactive theatrical recreation of the seige using "animatronics and computerised robots" (No, we didn't go.)  We stayed at the Kelly Country Motel, where they offer guests an extensive selection of free DVD movies and documentaries about Ned Kelly. We watched Ned Kelly Uncovered, the doco hosted by Time Team's Tony Robinson where they dig up the site of the inn where the Kelly Gang holed up during the seige.

Luke and Ned

We had dinner at the local and I reverted to eating steak after the Disappointing Chicken Incident in Corryong. It was eye fillet wrapped in bacon -  tender and juicy and delicious, the best meal of the trip. Then we retired to our motel to watch the Ned Kelly documentary and sleep - the last sleep on our road trip. Sigh. I didn't want it to end.