The wettest weekend. NO exaggeration.
We drove up to Benalla on Thursday night aiming to ski on Friday as we knew Saturday had heavy rains forecast with temps becoming too high to be snow. Down in the valley it rained and poured and rained and poured and the river levels started to rise. By Sunday the valley was hemmed in by rivers that had burst their dams and landslips and fallen trees. We were also stuck; trees had fallen on the road to Mt. Buffalo, the road to Falls Creek was closed due to multiple landslips and the Ovens had burst it’s banks in Harrietville, closing the road to Mt. Hotham. The road out of the valley was also close due to flooding at Porepunkah and Myrtleford. Sunday, Bright was full of frustrated skiers wandering around watching Morses Creek and the Ovens River rage into the sapce where the park used to be. Good news for the Bright Brewery! We called in on an old friend of Ross’s with a beautiful vineyard and had a happy aftenoon watching the waterfalls cascade down the mountains and walking alongside the raging creeks! Happily lots of snow was falling on the hills as temperture droppoed on Sunday and the mountains were beautiful on Monday – we headed up to Falls as this was the first road that opened. Luckily, by later in the day we could wind a way out of the valleys and onto the Hume Highway. Beside the highway the Ovens and King rivers met to form an flood plain through farmlands that stretched more than 5km wide…