The Manna House: The Kings Valley and 4 wheel driving

The beautiful Lake Benalla, near where we camped.

We have been out of Telstra range on and off as we drove through the King Valley, (so no blogging) for a while. It has been 36C for the last 3 days, so shade has taken on a new dimension when choosing where to stay.

We left Beechworth and planned to do a few recommended scenic drives, one was near town and only 5 Ks round and the other was 26 Ks via Stanley. The first was not really suitable for trucks, but we think of ourselves as a big car, so ignored the warnings and entered the narrow, one way drive. We travelled about 1 K and soon began to regret our decision as the road was very narrow with large boulders,very close to the road, threatening to wipe out the side mirror, skinny bridges and no turning back. What pipped us off, was the fact that it wasn’t even very scenic. We managed to make it through OK and should have taken that as a warning for the next drive. But no, ever suckers for punishment, we pressed on, only to find the next chosen route, which began with a lovely sealed road and fairly scenic, deteriorated into a 4 wheel drive track after about 8 Ks .Thus ended our second scenic drive!

We found a beautiful free camp at Everton, on the food and wine trail (a bit like the Hunter Valley) and thankfully there were already some people camped there. Situated on the Ovens river and very peaceful. We were joined later by another couple in a motorhome and had chats and drinks with them and got plenty of advice as they had been living on the road for 4 years and intended to" keep going".

We stopped at Brown Bros winery the next day and a few cheese/olives and other yummies type shops and stocked up a little on their goodies. Wangaratta was our next destination, but on arrival, found "no room at the inn". The whole town was booked out for the Jazz festival. We had no idea it was so big with lots of international jazz stars playing. It was also a long weekend due to people taking Monday off as Melbourne Cup day (Tues) appears to be a public holiday in Victoria. Benalla seemed far enough away to think we might get accommodated so drove there via Glenrowan, another town laying claim to Ned Kelly, but this time, in a big way. We have a Big Prawn and a Big Banana in NSW but Glenrowan has a Big Ned Kelly. He stands about 7 meters tall. The shops were selling Ned wine, wine holders, dolls and all manner of NK souvenirs . Come to think of it, almost every town for 150 Ks in all direction, has some claim on him and his family. Beechworth even had a cartoon picture of him playing tennis at the local lawn club! (as an inducement to join the club I suspect) see picture below.

The showground at Benalla offered cheap camping so we headed there and found a great spot near the Broken river, overlooking an oval and surrounded by trees with an excellent 4km walking track around the Lake/river. It was positioned opposite the town and art gallery, botanic gardens and most of the places of interest, and just across the river from the CBD, so we deemed it to be a beaut find and enjoyed our 2 days there.

We then moved on to Mansfield in the King Valley arriving in the middle of a big spring festival/street parade/market day. And again, accommodation wise, not much room left for the likes of us. We did manage to squeeze into the last available spot in the park close to town, but it was very noisy with a reunion of mid-life crises bikers, 60 or so of them, including the park owners. Anyway, the town was throbbing with excitement, so we had a look at the markets and art exhibitions and ate dinner at the local pub as it was just too hot (36C) to be cooking. A fairly noisy night ensued as the reunioners (if there be such a word) straggled back to the camping ground after a night of fun.

In the morning we checked out the local cemetery to see the graves of the young policemen Ned Kelly had shot (3 I think, all about 34 yrs old) then headed through the beautiful King Valley aiming for a free camp at Edi. It was again, a 36C day and our fridge was struggling badly. Most of the delicious produce we had bought, was rapidly going off and we ended up loosing a good deal of it. I think we had stuffed too much in, (the fridge, that is) but the situation has only improved slightly since tossing the ruined contents. We will need to have it looked at when we get to Shepperton. Meanwhile we are keeping the stocks down.
We found the Edi camp and it looked great, by a river with lots of other campers However, we could not see from the road well enough to note that they were mostly 4 wheel drivers. In we fearlessly ploughed only to find our progress halted by a large muddy puddle. Others had beaten a track around it, so we decided to follow suite. Not a good decision as we quickly found ourselves firmly wedged up against a tree stump unable to go forward or backwards without incurring some damage to the RV. I endeavoured to push the RV away from the said stump while Marnie revved hard and finally we were set free, only suffering a few dents and a bit of the stump wedged into the gap beside the door. We reversed our way out of there vowing not to attempt any more 4 wheel driving in a vehicle not intended for the purpose and backtracked, tail between our legs, to a van park 8kms down the road called Gentle Annie. It was pretty packed with long weekenders but once more, we were offered the last spot and gladly took it, even though there was no shade. Will the long weekend ever end! This would be a magnificent place to stay by the King River, if given the chance to choose your own spot. It is very popular, with people returning year after year (one family has returned 27 years running) On a stinking hot day (again 36C ) the river was icily refreshing. Hoping for more shade, we took ourselves off the next day to Moyhu, only about 15 or so kms down the valley and found the shadiest spot in the universe. The van park was only half full and a motor home had just pulled out, leaving us the best spot, under the huge, spreading branches of an Elm tree. Oh shade, glorious shade! Not to mention an inviting pool close by and the best amenities block we have yet come across. We quickly set up and began chats with our very friendly neighbours, later accepting their invite to join them for drinkies. The park emptied out rapidly in the morning as it was Melbourne cup day and the weekend was drawing to a close. Just in the nick of time too, as the morning temp had plunged to what felt like 10C (after a thunderstorm during the night) Now what do we do with all this shade!! Ya just cant win.

Vicki