The Buckland - Studio Retreat Bright

... for the uninitiated - dress warm when you sleep on a lilo in Beechworth - we froze the first night and didn't get a great sleep at all :s

I was nervous leading up to the AUDAX ride this morning. For everyone else there, this was to be a fun short social ride through Beechworth gorge and surrounds. For me, 37.5km was the furthest I'd ever ridden in one go, and despite my fitness improving since I started building up the days I ride to work and doing weights training ...

We have driven further into the state of Victoria and away from the coast into the bush and mountains. During the drive, we passed several areas that had been affected by the recent bush fires, the trees were all black but begining to regenerate.

We first passed through Glenrowan which was where the famous Ned Kellys shootout ...

... each one of us we just took photos & had a couple of snow fights.


That took over an hour to do & than we went for a drive around Dinner Plain & went & had lunch, the first place we went too didn’t serve lunch until 12:30 & the next place was closed. We finally found a pub that was serving lunch woo hoo. After a feed Les our guide said that there was bad weather coming in so we better get going. While Les was getting the car us girls had an impromptu ...

... a lovely night,also with some cake,milo's,and a movie! In the morning we packed down the caravan and headed to the main street.We went to 'The Famous Beechworth Bakery'(as mum calls it) to have lunch.After a few minutes dad carried on and did a bit of drawings.Mum, Marc and I went to the Beechworth Honey shop.The three of us went on a tour at the shop.We also bought a jar of Grey Ironbark.At the end we wondered around the town and headed to a new place

... to keep reminding ourselves that the Australian bush needs to have fires and of course up in the mountains like this they just have to be allowed to burn themselves out. Must have been so spectacular and frightening when you see the area which was under fire. Views were stunning on one side of the mountain, and very smoky and hazy on the other. No wonder they are continuing with the back burning so this devestation doesn't occur again. Also drove to ...

... s great products and the farm, we would rate this as one of the best honey establishments we have seen. We stopped off at the microbrewery called Bridge Road for a quick couple of wheat beers while sitting under a roof which once was a coach house, quite an amazing place. Our next stop was the best of all in every kid's eyes, both big and small as we entered the Beethworth Sweet Company. This shop had everything, I mean it had the best window ...

... so dass ich nun leider solch kurvigen Strassen nicht mehr ganz so gut verkrafte! Aber zum Glück war weder die Great Ocean Road noch die Great Alpine Road so lange, dass ich mich so richtig unwohl gefühlt habe. Aber vermutlich haben mich auch die neuen Eindrücke ein wenig abgelenkt, so dass es nochmal gut gegangen ist. Aber ich war froh, als wir dann endlich oben angekommen waren. Ich als Voralpenländlerin war natürlich sehr gespannt auf die australischen Alpen hier! Matt ...

... in America. It is 15 hours on the aeroplane! When we get to America we stay in a hotel for the day and SLEEP! Then at midnight we get on the aeroplane to Costa Rica. Grandad will pick us up at the airport and drive us to his house up in the mountains. Granny and Uncle Dan will arrive from England on the same day. I am very excited. It will be a lot of fun.

... in den B**gen fast unbezahlbar sind, nutzen viele die Möglichkeit in Bright unt**zukommen und dann mit dem Bus in die Skigebiete zu fahren. Bright ist dah** auch touristisch ab** natürlich ist es unt** d** Woche und in d** Nebensaison doch relativ ruhig, was es etwas angenehm** macht. Nach einem wund**baren Abendessen unt** St**nenhimmel und einem Glas Wein auf dem Balkon ging es dann nach einem beeindruckenden **sten Tag auch schon ins Bett, da ja am nächsten Tag die B**ge auf dem Programm standen.

... forest and a small lake, then found our way back to the hostel and made some dinner. The evening was spent in the pub with the locals and hostel guests, we were entertained by a group of Aussie renderers who were working on the supermarket refurbishment. They were pretty mean with a pool cue, unfortunately not at pool though, but used them as fiddles for when 'The devil came to Georgia' came on the juke box. We awoke feeling not too bad, and went to hire some bikes for the day ...