Beechworth, NSW
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 23 Jan 2015 00:28
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> What a fabulous place to camp! Check out the new extension!
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> Beechworth is also synonymous with the most famous of Australian bushrangers, Ned Kelly and his band of outlaws. Ned Kelly was, in some eyes, misunderstood and not entirely the outlaw he was made out to be. He was in and out of prison on a few occasions before the big stand-off at Stringeybark Creek which led to the death of most of his men and his capture. So the story goes, he was horrified by the treatment of his mother, who was sentenced to 3 years hard labour for hitting a drunken policeman over the head with a shovel while he was making inappropriate advances towards her 14 year old daughter. This then led to him getting his band of merry men together to go and wreak havoc. There was shoot out between Ned Kelly's men and the police at Stringeybark Creek, and despite the men being well armed, and wearing suits of armour, they were all killed and Ned captured to stand trial. He was tried and convicted at Beechworth Courthouse before being executed. There are several stories about Ned Kelly and some believe him to be a wronged man. There was even a petition to prevent his hanging which managed to get 32,000 signatures, not bad considering there was no media to publicise his case!
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> John looking anxious in the dock where Ned Kelly was tried and convicted.
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> Beechworth has been largely unchanged since the original granite buildings were built in the late 1800's
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> The Beechworth message tree - a gnarly mess of two trees which have fused together. It is over 400 years old and according to tree surgeons should be dead from the amount of nails banged in with messages over the years, but it is still hanging on. Good job really as the phone signal is not so great here!
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> As well as being famous for its outlaws, Beechworth is a big food and wine producing area and is part of the gourmet region of the state of Victoria. There are several wineries in the village, some with 'cellar doors' that you can visit and buy from, and lots of local food producers, growing fruits and also nuts.
> When we first arrived we were given a choice of sites, the one we took was right down by Lake Sambell. It is absolutely gorgeous and we had the whole area to ourselves for the first few days, apart from the ducks, and the very noisy kookaburras! Lake Sambell, and the surrounding park was created at the end of the gold rush to make the town a bit more enticing. Gold mining had destroyed a lot of the natural beauty of the area, by damming rivers and creeks and diverting water through man-made granite channels to get at more of the precious gold. It is now a beautiful area, with fabulous sunsets which have had each night except for the first one when we had a terrific thunderstorm that nearly deafened us, we also had over an inch of rain in 3 hours - thank goodness we now have a dry tent!
> Having spent one of our days here wandering round the town and dipping in and out of the various museums, we decided to go a bit further afield. We hired bikes from the campsite and set out. We were told that everywhere around here is uphill, so we decided to start with the Gorge Road scenic drive. At only 5km, it didn't seem like an insurmountable challenge. The first kilometre was all downhill and quite steep, which was a bit worrying as what goes down will inevitably go back up again. The ride was great, and the scenery fabulous and so we felt exhilarated enough to venture further. The old rail tracks that were dismantled years ago have been made into a footpath/cycle trail. The nearest place to here was Everton, 16.5km away. The guide said it was a long downhill ride to Everton, and a bit of an effort to get back, although there are bike buses which will bring you back if you need. Also, before we set off we decided that if it was just downhill all the way, we might stop, turn round and head back rather than making life too difficult. So what did we do? Rolled downhill all the way to Everton, and nearly killed ourselves getting back! Having stopped at the Everton pub for lunch, only 1 pint drunk each, we set off to come back, after the first 3.5km I was seriously wondering if I would actually make it back at all, and the bike buses seemed none existent! We really had to man up and take it on the chin, by the time we got back we were nearly collapsing! We had planned to stop at the winery on the way but couldn't be bothered, we just wanted to get home - I can't tell you how saddle sore I was after that experience, I am definitely not bike fit!
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> At the top of the Gorge Scenic road - it's all downhill from here!
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> The track to Everton
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> Is this the most comfortable bus shelter you have ever seen?
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> No I wasn't aware of the World Famous Everton Milkshake either!
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> John at the pub - is he smiling because he has just had lunch or grimacing as he is back in the saddle?
> To following day, to help us recuperate after our exertions the day before, we went for a drive through the Australian Alps. Neither of us would even entertain cycling anywhere, walking was bad enough, we had stiff bits everywhere, and only comfy, cushioned seats were acceptable, so the car seemed a good idea. We had a tourist map and looked at the distances and made a plan. What we didn't realise was that the map was drawn to fit all the places in the area on, and not to any scale at all. The distance between Beechworth and Myrtleford was 30km, we knew this from reading a road sign, so we thought that three times that distance to Omeo, would be 90km, not so, it was actually 180km. Our plan was to drive through the mountains and stop at Falls Creek, a ski resort where the chair lifts are open for walkers in summer. We have done this before in France, you get the lift up and walk down the ski runs. The brochure said they were all open during the school holidays. As it was, we didn't get to Falls Creek until about 4pm due to timing and distance issues, which was a good job really as the lifts weren't running at all! Also, coming across the top of the mountain pass, we had been caught in yet another huge thunder and lightning storm. We were the only car for miles around and, as we were at the top of the mountain, we were also the highest object for miles around. Not at all pleasant being stuck up there in the pouring rain, on winding roads, in a thunderstorm!
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> Yes, we are in ski country even though we are in Oz - NSW had their best ever ski season last year, who knew?
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> As we wound our way up the mountain roads, there were a lot of dead tress, which with the gloomy skies and empty road made everything a little bit eerie!
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> The views are spectacular but hard to photograph as they are so vast.
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> The rainbow following the storm
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> Other than the 2 storms though the weather has been perfect. Long summer days and gorgeous evenings by the tent watching the sunsets. We now have a new gazebo which has increased our living space quite a lot, although whether we use it more for a sun shade than an umbrella remains to be seen, it's about 50/50 right now!
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> Sent from my iPad