The Epic Journey

12 months ago I followed the road 'less traveled by' and found that 'it made all the difference'. So in 2009 I once again followed this philosophy and made the journey part of the holiday as I rode my trusty Suzuki to Melbourne avoiding the Hume Highway like an old high school aquaintance.

Off the usual tracks - empty roads of national parks are the BEST

My route took me from Canberra to Wee Jaspar - I stopped in the pub and made friends with the owner.

The Stables Tavern, Wee Jasper - this pub will feature in another entry shortly to come.

After receiving some directions and stopping by the local caves I took the Wee Jaspar Forest rd to Tumut, reaching some intense speeds on the wide loggers road.

Wee Jaspar caves - there chairs in the back are a ... different touch.

From Tumut I meandered to Tubarumba and camped the night before continuning my journey to Victoria through Corryong.

The Campsite at Paddy's River Falls, where I wish I had stayed.

The Towong bridge- crossing the Murray to Victoria.

I stopped and visited Jack Riley's grave - one of the bushmen who inspired Banjo Patterson's 'The Man from Snowy River'.The amazing winding roads of the Omeo Highway took me to Mitta Mitta and dropped by the local pub for a beer, a chat, and a walk around Australia's pioneer open cut gold mine.

Decorating one wall of the Mitta Mitta pub are these ingenius devices, zoom in on the photo to see what the locals have been up to

The next leg involved 20kms of a horrible dirt road and finished at another pub in the middle of nowhere.

After many years of searching I have finally found point B the location people talk about when going from A to B

Fourtunately there was a campground next door, so I set up camp, gave my credit card to the bar, and joined the Christmas party of local leadership camp group.

View from the Blue Duck Inn, a pub hidden within the bush!

The following day I passed through Omeo on the way to the coast I visited the memorial of one of Australia's earliest air disasters. I spent two ungodly hours on the Princes highway
from Bairnsdale to Moe before turning off and heading north through the logging towns of Noojee and Powelltown.

An old waterwheel at Noojee, used to power illegal gambling during the settlements early years

I finally reached Melbourne two daysafter three days on the road to be greeted by this smiling face.