I did say when we set out on this trip - "I want to go to places that I didn't know I wanted to go to."

It is not enough to just go to places you know of and have heard about, with all the thousands of towns in Australia there must be many interesting places that we have never heard of. The chat around camp kitchens with total strangers is great; you pick up little hints of places to visit. After one such chat Trish took to the map book again for a rethink of our after Melbourne plans ( which had already changed several times ). If it looks too wet along the coast to Bairnsdale and too cold in Bright then perhaps head a bit further north to Beechworth.

Well we just found one of those - "I want to go to places that I didn't know I wanted to go to." Places. Beechworth! Getting there was a lot of fun. Rugged up against the cold Melbourne morning we headed off to venture back through the Victorian Bushfire towns of Whittlesea and King Lake West. The weather was holding and although the mountain roads were still a bit damp the riding was a motorcyclists dream.

We headed to Mansfield for a coffee break then on to Whitfield for a very tasty ham and salad roll. The mountain scenery on the way was superb. Fed and watered we were off to do the history thing at Glenrowan, Ned Kelly country. When Trish went through in 2004 she was amazed that there was only one tiny plaque in a vacant block and a very tacky museum. Luckily thing had changed, tacky museum was still there and up for sale, but the interpretative signage around the town detailing the Kelly siege was excellent and very informative. But we both do question why a gang that had killed four people, robbed and cheated then planned to kill a whole train load of Police has become a folk hero. Enough of that.

On to Beechworth in beautiful weather. Here we planned to spend one night and then move on to Cooma. We took an onsite van for one night and a chance to dry out the tent a bit. Then it kicked in how beautiful and interesting Beechworth really is. This really was one of those places that we didn't know we wanted to see and now realized we must spend at least another day here.

Early next morning, after checking the weather for the next few days, it was off to reception to see if we could have the van for another night. In luck!

We have just spent the day doing and interesting guided history walk, looking through several museums, eating great pies at the bakery and hiking to the cemetery to look at the Chinese section. Heard more stories of Ned Kelly, upset a couple of locals when we said perhaps a murderer and thief should not be such a hero. Naughty us! Also heard lots about Burke of Burke and Wills fame and how he was the resident Police Superintendent in Beechworth before his fateful trip. Trish identified with him when we were told he was notorious for having no sense of direction at all. With that qualification why was he chosen to lead the exploration trip?

Winter is coming and all the trees are changing colour, time to start our migration north. I thing the birds have already gone north.

Dave