Hotham 10 – Day 1 – Hit the road…

The first day of any ski adventure seems to start early. Really early. Today was no exception – with a 3:30am alarm call to make a 4:30am rendezvous. We were glad to be gone of the wild weather hanging around Adelaide, but it didn’t let us get away without some hairy driving first – including sections of the freeway being subject to complete darkness (where they would otherwise be lit), and rain heavy enough to make seeing anything very hard.

Snow-bearing clouds, perhaps?

Regardless, we soon escaped most of the wild weather (although the rain continued for some time), and headed towards the Victorian border. For the first time in a number of years, our traditional “convoy” was a convoy of one – just us. Others were making their own ways and times, however as we were to soon confirm, if we were planning on being at the destination at a similar time, and departing at a similar time too, we were bound to cross paths along the way!

We stopped at the Ouyen Bakery for breakfast, and here bumped into the second car of travellers: Michelle, David, Emma and Bronte. As part of our breakfast conversation, I happened to ask Bronte what her choice for song to sing while on the chairlift was for this year (expecting perhaps a Justine Clarke, “we like to sing”). The answer? “Love Generation”. That’ll teach me to ask the hard questions. (Lucky the chorus is easy, I guess…)

The journey continued uneventfully, and mostly spattered with rain, until we reached Echuca where we stopped for lunch at the regular “Beechworth Bakery” (the best bakery in Australia, apparently). This fine establishment was packed to the brim of customers, and we were lucky to find a table and plant ourselves there for a few minutes while we ate. We did cross paths with Car 2 again here, although they pushed on relatively quickly to spend some time looking at the (painted) cows in Shepparton.

Showtunes were the musical accompaniment for the majority of the day, and whether this had any impact on our near-record early arrival time (4pm) is a question that remains unanswered. Upon arriving in Bright (which was also being subjected to heavy downpours), we made a quick chain hire/ski service stop, did some grocery shopping, and made our way to the place we’d call home for the night – “Bright on Track”. This choice was one applauded by all as a major improvement over the regular “Bogong View” (Bogan View as some preferred). Some notable improvements include: instant hot water, warmer bathrooms, space, light etc etc.

Bronte, Scott and Emma at dinner

We didn’t rest long before heading out for dinner – a new restaurant to start the trip off; The Il Centro Pizza House. I’m not going to bore you with little intricate details here (I do that enough already), but the upshot of dinner was that while the food was excellent, the service was a little less than excellent. This resulted in food being left for long periods before being served, sauces and toppings coming separately (both physically and in time) to the main dish, and so on. My recommendation? Take-away.

Everyone (the now 10-strong party) headed for bed relatively early ahead of a somewhat early start tomorrow morning to make our way up the mountain. Unfortunately, none of us are really looking forward to what we might find up there. As a teaser, here are some current conditions:

- Temperature: +1.3C
- Rain (since about 6pm): 20.2mm (and that’s rain. Not snow)
- Windchill: -17.5C
- Windspeed: 82km/h, gusts of 102km/h

Yikes? I guess only time will tell… but looking at that, we might be better buying wetsuits and going snorkelling tomorrow at the top of the hill. Perhaps I should have invested in a set of grass skis?

To have a look at the (limited) photos from today, click here to go straight to the gallery!

About the Author

Scott

Web designer, graphic designer, coder, scripter, photographer, musician, performer, entrepreneur (and the list goes on) based in Adelaide, South Australia. Scott loves to experiment with new ideas, and OnSno.com is his creative dumping ground.