We have just returned from a few days in the Victorian Alps and the Rutherglen wine district having traveled the Great Alpine Road. We just wanted to have a chance to see the Autumn colours in the Bright region as we had missed them on our previous visit.
We organised our accommodation for two nights before setting out on our trip. The first night was spent in Harrietville.
which is also known as a gold mining region. There are many things to attract travelers to the Alpine region apart from the beautiful autumn colours
and one of our reasons was to buy walnuts as the walnuts from the Bright region are something else again. They have a creamy taste and are very different from the walnuts you buy at the supermarket or greengrocer.
After our stay in Harrietville we traveled to Bright and had a good wander around the town. One interesting sign to be found there is this one. . .
Apparently the Bunyah pine tree has rather large pine cones
which could cause serious damage it they were to land on your head!
Yackandandah was our next stop for the night and we were delighted to find the pie shop where pies and coffee from our old home city could be found. We used to live in Canberra and the baker from Yackandandah used to sell his pies at the Canberra Markets so we were well acquainted with the pies and the coffee in his shop was the Canberra coffee – Wagonga. A great find for us.
We spent the night in Yackandandah and then moved on to Beechworth which is an historical town also known for goldmining and for having had Ned Kelly the bushranger in the prison there.
There are wonderful museums with lots of information about the history of Beechworth and its residents. Emma George, who held the world record for pole vault, was born in Beechworth.
You can tour the prison and many other historical spots.
The prison is obviously no longer operational, in fact it has just been sold!
From Beechworth we moved on to Rutherglen and found accommodation at the Victoria Hotel. It was looking rather rundown compared to when we last stayed there some twenty years ago but we still had a comfortable stay
and a substantial meal in the dining room. The new owner has only been there six months and has already made improvements so hopefully it will soon be restored to its former glory.
We toured a few wineries and renewed our acquaintance with those wineries we had visited long ago. I will tell more next Tuesday.
Gippsland Granny 
What a wonderful post. I love both Yacka and Bright, such gorgeous country towns that we’ve camped in numerous times. Thanks for bringing back fond memories. 🙂
I was amazed at how many families were using the rail trail and obviously having a great time. I guess because it was the Anzac weekend they had the opportunity to get out. It is a wonderful trail and now I am determined to return with my bike and do some of the rail trail.
Oh you definitely should. We used to do that trail with the kids all the time when they were younger.