One of the great things about living in Sydney is that it is better than Melbourne.  In fact, ask anyone living in the state and they’ll tell you New South Wales is better than Victoria.  Better weather, better beaches, better footy codes, better ski resorts, better history and culture, better beer, better everything.  And Sydney, one of the great cities in the world, casts a long shadow over an admittedly very good Melbourne.  Absolutely for sure, open and shut case.  Of course anyone from Melbourne and Victoria would passionately and vigorously tell you exactly the opposite – and so they should.  Well, Julie and I have to grudgingly admit that the vast rugged wilderness we’ve seen here in north-eastern Victoria is just about as good as it gets.  Victoria, we’re converted.

After picking up fuel and supplies in the small regional centre of Corryong with it’s attractive main street and mountains rising up all around we headed south again on the road towards Omeo.  Our plan, as much as we had one, was to explore other areas of the huge Alpine National Park that combined with state forest and designated wilderness area seemed to cover most of this wild and beautiful region. 

This wide dirt road heading south wound its way up, over, across and around a countless string of mountain ridges and valleys, sometimes leading us up deep gorges or around high points, always surrounded by an endless view of native forested Aussie bush for as far as we could see.  The rare car or logging truck would throw up huge clouds of fine dust that temporarily cut out all light and visibility.  It was beautiful but definitely the full experience.

We camped that night at Joker’s Flat on the stunning Mitta River, one of many large rivers that are fed from these mountains.  This section of the Alpine National Park at least had a paved road although it was no straighter or less beautiful than what we had done in the morning.  Who knew this immense region of north eastern Victoria was so wild, so thinly populated and so beautiful?

We drove into the small town of Omeo the next day for a few supplies and to have a look around.  Never has a town of 400 people offered so much – a delightful main street, historic remains of their mining past, old buildings, cute shops, all the travel essentials, friendly locals.  We gave Omeo a big thumbs up.

We headed into the eastern section of Alpine National Park, travelling along the winding Limestone Road which makes a large sweeping arch through the northern reaches of this section of the park before heading south again.  We then passed into Snowy River National Park which is dissected by the iconic Snowy River.

This park preserves a vast stretch of brutally rugged and wild terrain that just makes you want to hug it all.  In the 1800’s it was described as “wild and rough and grand in the extreme.  In no place else in Victoria are there dizzy precipices, such sheer bluffs or gorges with such vertical sides…”.  We couldn’t agree more. 

We took the Mackillops Road, a side road that headed down to the beautiful Snowy River, and were treated to a white knuckle narrow single track cut into the steep mountain face as it snaked its way down to the river, a drop of many hundreds of metres.  Wanda’s brakes were smokin’ by the time we made it to our camp near the famous and historic Mackillops Bridge that spans the Snowy and in these far northeastern reaches is the only link between one part of the state and the other. 

After a windy night on the Snowy River we followed the same road back up the mountain, awkwardly meeting a car coming down the other way and somehow managing to squeeze past.  The stunning views of the river below compensated for the tense drive on this narrow track.

Further south we stopped at Buchan to visit the impressive Buchan limestone caves.  We’ve done some great limestone caves in the past, including Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, so we’re absolute experts on the matter.  While the Buchan caves might not have been in the same category as Jenolan and Carlsbad the Royal Cave which we toured through was absolutely outstanding with very tight and claustrophobic walking paths connecting numerous areas of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, large columns, beautiful shoals and large flows that were just wonderful.  We were very surprised and super impressed, just great.

We made our way via some beaut state forest fire trails to the regional town of Orbost where we decided to get Wanda’s squeaky brakes checked out.  Some of the steep tracks we’ve done lately has put some pressure on her braking system and they’ve been complaining loudly.  After giving Wanda a thorough check-over and a nice clean-out of all the dust plus some lubricating oil of the rear brake drums the ever-helpful Tim declared Wanda’s brakes in perfect order for some more off-roading. 

Based on Tim’s recommendation, we camped that night again on the banks of the Snowy River, this time just upstream of Orbost on a tight hairpin turn that slowed the water to a crawl and made for a perfect swimming and camping spot.  This place was such a beautiful and tranquil spot to call a night we gave it a rare 10 in the spreadsheet.  Oh Snowy, let me count the ways.

With blue skies in the forecast we headed to the coast and spent most of the morning exploring Cape Conran Coastal Park which featured long sandy beaches, dramatic headlands and the actual mouth of the Snowy River where it flowed into the big blue Pacific.  We’ve been to the headwaters of the Snowy under the shadow of Mt. Kosciusko in NSW and camped on it’s shores many times over the last two years, including the last two nights.  To see it flow into the ocean and disappear was a satisfying end to our good friend.

We headed further west to Lake Tyers State Park which features a lake popular with the anglers and long beaches popular with us.  We camped on the backside of a huge sand dune that separated us from Pettman’s Beach and spent the afternoon lolling about on the beach, cooling ourselves as required in the surf and generally sopping up this beautiful scene on a totally empty beach that stretched in both directions as far as we could see.

The next day we made our way along the coast to the popular holiday town of Lakes Entrance where the Gippsland Lakes, a series of lakes, marshes and lagoons, drain into the ocean.  Lakes Entrance is both a commercial and recreational fishing mecca but today also features endless caravan parks, motels and hotels to cater for the summer influx of visitors.  Yes, it was a bit touristy and busy but the town had a beautiful setting on the waterways and had done a good job of catering for the summer hordes. 

After fish and chips, supplies and showers we headed northeast again along the coast and found ourselves camped for another night on the Snowy River at our favourite Woods Point.  If you can’t beat it, do it again we say.  This time we opted for a different section which was only accessible with a 4WD but the views were equally stunning.  As we sat there enjoying this quiet and peaceful view of the Snowy slowly flowing past us we compared it to some of our favourite campsites on our Follow the Sun journey.  It was that good.

So how did a couple of one-eyed New South Wales people rate Victoria – and particularly the Upper Murray and East Gippsland area – after eight days so far in the southern state?  Outstanding!  The wild and rugged mountains, absolutely beautiful national parks, wonderful river systems, long shimmering beaches and abundance of free camping spots left us wanting more.  Which is a good thing because we still have time to explore this area in more detail!