Beechworth - Xmas 2020 - Page 1

It is not too far to Beechworth from Melbourne. So I planned a longer route. One which took me through the serendipitous Bonnie Doon.

Boonie Doon has an old rail bridge going across the swamp.

How's the serenity?

The car has not been used since March. The battery went flat and some guy had to come in a van and jump start it. Then I washed it. Here it is washed. A rare site.

Now in Beechworth. Lots of churches. Xmas dinner was a ready meal from a Melbourne supermarket transported to Beechworth inside a recently purchased Esky. The only thing open in Beechworth was the Indian restaurant. They were doing amazing trade.

Nice twilight. The buildings are old, gold rush era.

There are kind of two main streets. It looks abandoned today, but tomorrow, no chance of locating a car park if you were too lazy to walk.

Like most old gold towns, it has an extensive judicial system. Here is the courthouse.

And this is the jail / gaol. I thought it might still be in use, the razor wire was still shiny. But I later discovered it was replaced by a more remote jail / gaol in 2005. The new jail / gaol is where John Farnhams manager was jailed / ??? for tax fraud. Glen Wheatley was his name.

NOW IT IS BOXING DAY. This is the nearby town of Yackendandah. Australia's most environmentally carbon negative town.

After a brief visit to Yackandandah, the next tourist stop was the popular Woolshed Falls. A great spot for photos, except there were other people.

Person on a rock.

Lots of rocks to plummet to your death from.

More rocks and a lookout. Time to go to the lookout.

I am really good at finding angles without naked children swimming in rock pools.

View down stream from lookout.

View back up from the lookout, with other people in the view.

After the waterfalls, a small detour to the COMPLETELY CLOSED town of Chiltern, a town which featured knitting / crochet bombed sign posts.

At sunset it was time for a surprise bonus walk around the gorge. The start of the walk looks back at the bridge the motel I am staying at is named after.

More bridge. It is called the Newtown bridge. They made a spelling error.

The gorge walk was excellent. Lots of huge boulders to gawk at.

I climbed up to appreciate the view. I was very pleased with gorge walk.

You can drive around the loop on a one way track. Some people had done this and their nude children were again bathing in rock pools. This of course means that me wandering around with a camera could get me shot. I also heard some gunshots!

Looking down towards the rock pool area from a small bridge.

And a few more boulders as the sun sets.

The end of the gorge walk is the powder magazine, where miners used to go to get their gunpowder, far enough away from the town that when it inevitably exploded, it did not destroy the town.

One of the main attractions of Beechworth is nearby Lake Sambell. You can walk around it. I did.

View of the full extent of the lake.

Back behind the old Gaol / Djhale there is a large rock with canons on it, pointing at the lake, presumably for when the Chinese navy invades.

One lake is not enough. This place had zero other people and is called Fletchers Dam. Recommended for the serenity.

Next up was the cemetery, specifically, the Chinese miners part of the cemetery. Apparently over 2000 Chinese dudes died here digging for gold.

These towers are where people used to burn paper offerings, like they still do in China / Taiwan / Hong Kong. If you tried it here now you would be arrested.

There was enough time for another bonus hike, the nearby Mount Pilot.

Mount Pilot is another giant rock, great clouds.

More rock. Getting to here involves a dirt / sand track, but it is quite well maintained. The walk to the summit is not far, and its well signposted.

The last photo this camera will ever take. I have insurance, when I get back I will find out how that works.

First stop of the day, Myrtleford. A bigger but less historic town than Beechworth. Many cafes. I found a swamp to take a photo of.

Hard to take a photo of the busy street, as it was a wide highway. This is the actual main street but has less cafes than the highway.

Up the road from Myrtleford in the town of Porepunkah is the turn off to Mount Buffalo. There is Mount Buffalo. The road up is very good. It was popular today in many places.

The first view from the top. I drove to the top but there are many places to hike around at the top. There is also a coffee cart, they also sell sandwiches.

The path to the summit lake was wide and smooth.

It crosses a small bridge just as you get to the lake. There is a dam and a tiny hydroelectric thingy making power to keep the phone towers going so I can blast all my socials with these pics rather than enjoy the scenery.

Start of the lake, with a duck swimming away from me at top speed. I decided to walk around the lake.

The path around the lake was excellent.

There were many flowers to enjoy, purple, yellow, orange, white.

Looking away from the lake at a PLATEAU. I love a plateau. Nice colors on the plateau. My phone camera makes blues very blue.

A bit more scenery. You can see the re growth from fires. The ridge line trees are very colorful.

Far side of the lake. Excellent scenery. 3/4 of the way around there is a camp site, toilets. Normally theres a shop but it was closed.

On the way back I took the steeper path. Really excellent scenery. Slimey green swamp areas, big rocks, blue skies.

It seemed very remote, but there were other people. It is a steep path down and up the other side of a gorge back to the car park.

Nearly back to the car, view appearing.

Farm lands below.

Here is the view from the car park lookout. I have been here twice before in my life.

The view back the other way.

After Mount Buffalo there was time for a visit to the nearby busting town of Bright. It was full. Very full. This photo does not show it but there were so many people at the other end of this street that it was a bit uncomfortable. Traffic was crazy.

Last pic, the Bright clock tower, and a bit one of thousands of huge 4wd things people seem to drive to the cafes.

This walk is quite near Beechworth, in the gorge area, it takes in rocks, spiders webs, quarries, more rocks.

The paths were quite nice, with baby pine trees. You cant get lost.

The view from 'The Precipice'.

I think this is called Inghams rock, named after a guy who got a lot of hospitals built in the goldfields. So they named a rock after him.

More rock in the other direction.

After the gorge hike, I drove along gravel to a place called Eldorado. Hiding in the scrub along this creek were many people camping, panning for gold.

It was a very nice area actually, but people trying to find their fortune are terrifying, so I moved on.

Later in the day, it was time to head to the lunatic asylum. And it is enormous! Why? Such a huge grand place to lock up crazy people. I feel as though it must have been for more than just Beechworth.

Last pic of the day, more lunatic asylum. Very grand old buildings.