Day Three – in which we enter Mexican Territory. December 29th 2007

I don’t know how it started but it is not uncommon here in Australia for one to hear the expression ‘he/she’s a Mexican’ when you know full well that the object of the discussion is in full possession of an Australian accent and an appetite for VB rather than Coronas… (or tequila…).
Having said that, I could then be mistaken for being a Mexican on drinks preference… However, for the purposes of this discussion I am resolutely not a Mexican.
Unless you’re from Queensland.
Let me explain…
As a New South Welsh woman anyone to whom I would refer as a Mexican would be from Victoria. That is to say they’re from ‘South of the Border’.
I know. It’s a Dad joke…
So Day Three was all about the driving. We took the scenic and most direct route through the Alpine Way which is not a road you’d take in inclement weather. Long, windy and unsealed in parts if memory serves me correctly. Certainly wouldn’t be in favour of it in the snow.
In the picture below you can see red posts marking the side of the road. You see a lot of these in the alpine roads and they vary in size from knee height to shoulder, or even head height… if that’s 6feet or so…(not my head height, that’s for sure!!). The variable height is relative to potential snow depth… this stretch is lower down the mountain.. The posts in Thredbo were at the higher end of the spectrum.

We left the Goodtimes in the morning and got on the road around 8.30, given that there were 770km to travel that day seemed prudent to get on the road early… The following photos really only document the earlier part of the day. There was little to capture once we got on the Hume Freeway.

This is one way to do it… if you’re of the energetic persuasion…

Our first stop on the road was at Scammell’s Ridge lookout – no question that it’s gorgeous…(It’s another Pano… embiggen).

(yep… another one… embiggen)
I’m no big fan of hiking but it was so lovely it would have been totally tempting… If you’re interested there’s more information about the alpine way here… Alpine Way or Scammells Lookout

Heading out of the alpine way on the way to the Murray River and the Victorian/NSW border I loved these English looking trees all lined up… A marked contrast to the ubiquitous gum trees.
So once we’d got through the mountains and back down into less bumpy territory we made our way towards the Hume Freeway which would take us all the way to Melbourne. Before we got there though we had to get across the border into Victoria… over the Mighty Murray River

The river looked reasonably unimpressive, there is water in it, the levels, due to the drought are lower than usual but as I’ve never seen it before I had no basis for comparison!!
I did get impressed once we got to Lake Hume just out of Albury Wodonga…
How amazing are these????

The Dead Trees in the middle of the lake are River Red Gums and as Lake Hume was a man made creation they all drowned when the lake went in… they make for a totally eerie view. I’d love to get shots at lake level in the early morning mist… TOTALLY freaky!
We got in to Apollo Bay around 7pm after a stop in Wangaratta for a McDonald’s lunch. It’s been great getting to see a few country towns in our travels. Reminds me of home. They don’t look much the same but the atmosphere is similar.
Anyway, I know you’re hanging out for Great Ocean Road photos… promise I’ll dish them up for the next post!