Last Saturday (26 January) was Australia Day. It recognizes the day that the First Fleet (aka - boats full of British convicts) landed at Port Jackson in New South Wales and raised the flag of Great Britain in 1788. It is celebrated in a similar manner to the 4th of July in the US - barbecues, fireworks, general frivolity, etc. It's also a national holiday and if it happens to fall on the weekend, we get the following Monday off. There is also some controversy around celebrating it on January 26th, as most of the First Nations people view that as the day that the British invaded Australia. So in that regard, it is similar to the controversy surrounding Columbus Day in the US. Rather than delve into the politics of it all, I'll tell you how Ross and I spent the three-day weekend.
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| Mount Buffalo National Park |
We both wanted to get out of Melbourne for the long weekend so we rented a car and went to Mount Buffalo National Park, which is located about 4 hours northeast of Melbourne in the Australian Alps. It was the first time that either of us had been to that mountain range and we were both blown away by how beautiful it was. Plus we really lucked out with our timing of this trip because there were so many wildflowers. We're already trying to figure out when we can go back. Plus there is cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, so we will definitely have to get up there this winter for some snow play.
On Saturday it had been almost 100 F on the valley floor but by the time drove up to the park (1,200 meters higher in elevation), it had cooled down to a much more pleasant 80 F. We hiked into the remote campsite at Mount Mcloed, dropped our packs and then hiked up Mount Mcloed. The hike to the campsite was through the forest with no overlooks, so we really appreciated the 360 degree views from Mount Mcloed. After soaking in the views, we hiked back down, set up our trusty tent and made dinner.
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| White-eared Honeyeater |
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| On top of Mt Mcleod |
It ended up raining a bunch over the night which was fine by me because 1) it become significantly cooler (approx. 60 degrees) and 2) the eucalyptus forest that we were hiking through smelled amazing. It rained off and on for our whole hike back to the car but we saw a ton of birds and generally enjoyed the cooler weather.
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| Crimson Rosellas - the green ones are females and the red and purple blur is a male. |
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| Superb Lyrebird |
Once we made it back to the trailhead, we drove down to Lake Catani and set up our tent in the campground there. We decided to have lunch at the campground and realized that we had picked up a hitchhiker at some point. Ross had opened the back hatch and was digging some stuff out of his bag when he suddenly jumped backwards from the car. I came over to see what was up. There was a small (by Aussie standards, huge by anyone else's standards) Huntsman on the inside of the hatch, about 6 inches from where Ross's head had been.
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| Scuttling along... |
After getting some pictures, we both agreed that we had to get it out of the car. Can you imagine driving along and finding that it your lap?!? We managed to get it out with minimal squealing and running away from the car when it hit the ground and scuttled underneath it. In my defense, I was not the only one running away...
After that we drove to the south end of the park and hiked up the Horn. It was socked in but still had great views. We decided that, if it wasn't cloudy on Monday, we needed to come back.
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| Looking south from the Horn |
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| Looking north from the Horn |
Once we made it back to the campground we walked around the lake, had dinner and then enjoyed a fabulous sunset.
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| Female (L) and male (R) Crimson Rosellas |
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| Lake Catani |
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| Sunset on Lake Catani |
On Monday we had been planning on doing a 12 km hike but we slept in a bit later than we had intended to and decided to just do a couple short hikes instead - we did still have a 4-hour drive back to Melbourne after all. We started off by going back up the Horn again. To say that it was a totally different view than we'd had on Sunday would be putting it mildly.
After spending a lot of time up on the Horn, we hiked out to the Dicksons Falls lookout. It was a nice, flat walk but there were so many flies. So many flies. And, after the Horn, the lookout was not super impressive.
Following a quick lunch at Dingo Dell, we drove back to Melbourne. After the cooler temperatures in the mountains, I was not super thrilled to go back to the high 90s F in Melbourne but it was nice to have escaped to the mountains for the weekend. As I said, we both want to go back and explore the alpine area more so watch for more mountain adventures!
Random Australian fun fact: Melbourne was founded by John Batman in 1835, though he wanted to call it Batmania (you're welcome for that nugget of knowledge). There is a Batman Park in downtown Melbourne and I always kind of chuckle when I go by it on the tram.
