En route for Melbourne

So off we set with GPS down towards Melbourne via Bright, a drive of about 1000 kilometres altogether, about 625 miles.  

The first and most obvious thing to note was the dry landscape.  Not only has Victoria suffered from lack of water, but all this side of Australia looks bone dry as one would expect as this is the beginning of autumn.  As we got towards Victoria, the dryness became more obvious and we passed little bits of burned out sides of the road increasing to vast swathes along both sides of the motorway as we came closer to Melbourne.  We took the road towards the alpine region which incorporates the snowy mountains.  Along this route, we passed clear signs of recent bush fire, roads closed and forests burned out.  We got out, not out of ghoulishness but because the sight of those gum trees, their trunks still standing but burned was somehow compelling.  The impression we received was of emptiness, all the life had gone, no birds and no movement except the wind which rather eerily passed amongst the trees as if counting the dead.  The contrast with the fruit and vegetable growing area which is where Bright is was also rather shocking, it is as if the fire comes and picks off one area and leaves another close by untouched. This small town is known for being close to the Australian ski ing area, it has a wonderful and dramatic autumn which brings in tree gazers who love the reds and oranges of the season, it  is a centre of paragliding and we rather expected to see the sky filled with multi coloured canopies with paragliders a dangling.  Our host, Bill Brooks is a keen paraglider, his lady friend, Phillipa is a painter.  His paragliding club flies from Mystic Mountain and we might have had an exhibition flight but there wasn't enough wind.  We went walking though down by a nice river which runs through the town before having supper.  There was lots to catch up on and we were royally treated, champagne to drink, curry for supper and then kippers for breakfast!   We left in good time the next morning for Melbourne, GPS in good form with lots of instructions to get us first back to the Motorway and then through Melbourne to Acland Street