Walhalla

We left Lakes Entrance on Monday the 11^th of Feb and drove through Bairnsdale which is a big town. We did a small amount of shopping and headed on and bypassed Traralgon and headed up the mountains to check out Walhalla.

On the way up we stopped at a lookout which had a panoramic view. It was also very informative about the towns up in these hills.

We were staying at the Erica Caravan Park. This park is on the list of CMCA (Campervan. Motorhome Club of Australia) ‘Dollarwise Parks’ which means they charge $10 a night as long as you are a member of the CMCA but you must be fully self contained and you can’t make use of power, water and the rest of the facilities. It is just a way of having your van in a secure location whilst you leave it and only have to pay $10. In any case it was a pretty good spot

After setting up and having lunch we went the short distance to Walhalla. When researching for the trip I had read about Walhalla and that it was a place worth visiting. I didn’t really know anymore than that. It was a very quaint place which is built in this rugged valley with steep hills everywhere. Gold was discovered here and that is the only reason a town would have emerged there. Every flat bit of ground was utilized and where it sloped they dug out the slope and put buildings. Here are a few photos to give you an idea.

On top of a hill central to the town they cleared a flat top and made a cricket ground out of it. Read the picture and info in the photo for this funny story. The Melbourne Cricket Club visited to play the Walhalla team led by Test Captain Warwick Armstrong. Armstrong wagered that he could hit a ball into the yard of the hotel below but he was caught on the boundary.

The town was threatened by fire only a few days ago in the major fires that occurred recently in central Victoria. The town was open but only just. There were a lot of fire fighting crews still in town looking exhausted.  In several areas on the hills around the town you can see where the fires encroached and stopped.

Especially in this photo where the fire reached a back fence.

Our final stop in Walhalla was to have a beer in the local pub to support the community. On the drive back to camp we saw where there were choppers fire bombing a stubborn fire that was only one valley away from Walhalla. When we got to camp we could see that there was a chopper flying down to a dam at the bottom of the hill from our van park. We got a couple of videos that I will put on facebook. But Linda got some good photos with her super dooper camera.

 I managed to get a couple of good photos with my little camera as well.

So we sat around at camp during happy hour like bogans sitting at the end of aerodromes for a night’s entertainment, while we photographed and filmed the chopper. Note the different photographic equipment. Unfortunately I could not include my little Canon in the same shot. GO THE BOGANS.