Great Alpine Road to Echuca, Victoria

Monday the 16th of April... We left our caravan behind at the Cheney's lakes house in Metung this morning and headed towards the Great Alpine Road to Echuca.
As the day drew on, we were more and more grateful that we had left the van behind.
Although the views were amazing, the 7 hour drive to Echuca would have taken much longer towing a van up the mountain and around the winding roads...

Beautiful mountain views

The little villages along the way were also beautiful and we felt like we had entered a different country.

Before long we had reached Hotham, one of the country's premier ski resorts... It was quiet for obvious reasons, we were too early for the snow season, but I can only imagine how it buzzes during the ski season...

Mount Hotham, very quiet at this time of the year

It was amazing to see how there were forests of trees that simply don't grow because of the cold conditions...

Forests of leafless trees

Me taking a photo of me (I was bored ;-)

We also got to see a glimpse of Mount Kosciuszko. We were still in Victoria but so close to New South Wales. We knew we were in serious snow country when the road markings turned yellow, for visibility and there were poles to mark the depth of snow along the sides of the road.
I am sure it's all second nature for eastern staters, but very foreign if you're from the west.

Yellow lines and poles along the roadsides

We then stopped to take in the views from a lookout, which made us all feel like we'd reached the top of the world...

All of us on top of the world. Ps that's Nina's hand between my legs (just had to clarify that)

The kids then tried their best to touch the sky...

On top of the world

Once up the top we then had the long and winding road down.... the GPS says it all...

We then drove through Wangaratta, where we stopped for lunch, followed by Shepparton... before making it to Echuca around 5 o'clock.
Tomorrow, we catch up with my Dad and my brother Leon and his boys... We are all excited to be spending a week together on a houseboat, cruising the Murray River.