Chiltern

4 – 9 March 2023

We had visited Chiltern and wanted to return for its proximity to Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park, where the Regent honeyeater can be found. There is no suitable camping in the national park so we chose the caravan park in town, which is ideally located on Lake Anderson. Chiltern is a small town with a few interesting shops, a small supermarket and a couple of pubs.

On Sunday morning we went for a walk in town and discovered there were markets on in the park so we went down to have a look. There was a good variety of stalls and we bought some salami and quince paste in anticipation of a nice cheese platter one day soon. We went out to the national park later in the afternoon but the light wasn’t great so we decided we needed to come back for a morning session.

We had a few things we needed to do in Wodonga so we drove in on Monday morning and ended up spending half the day there. By the time we had had a tyre looked at, bought a few things for our camping set up and visited some op shops, it was lunch time so we found a very nice café near the supermarket, then we stocked up on groceries and headed home. We also went for a walk around the lake later in the day and bought fish and chips for dinner from a visiting food van.

Sunset over Lake Anderson

On Tuesday we made the effort to get out of bed early and drove to Honeyeater Picnic area in the national park. It’s a lovely spot by a dam where there were lots of birds. Mick spent about an hour wandering around in the bush.

Wednesday was cold and drizzling with rain so we decided to spend an extra night in Chiltern so we didn’t had to pack up in the wet. It was a good day for a touristy drive so we chose a route that would take us back towards the alpine area with our first stop at Beechworth.

Beechworth is a lovely town with lots of old buildings dating from the gold rush era. There are lots of interesting gift shops and heaps of cafes which is an indication of its reliance on tourism. My favourite shop was the Beechworth Honey shop where we were able to sample some of their delicious wares. They were happy to provide tastings even though we explained we would be unable to purchase any due to our imminent return to Tasmania. Biosecurity rules prohibit you from taking honey into Tasmania (and other states as well).

From Beechworth we continued towards the high country and Myrtleford. The rain was tumbling down and it was very cold so we didn’t spend much time wandering the town. We visited a couple of op shops then continued on to Yackandandah where we again browsed a couple of shops before heading home to Chiltern. Every Wednesday the communal fire is lit at the caravan park so we joined some fellow travellers for a very enjoyable drink and a chat by the fire.

The following morning was bright and clear – but very cold at just under 4° when we climbed out of bed at 7:30a.m. We set about packing up ready to head down the road to Glenrowan.