Introduction

Its a good chance that you've heard of Victoria's Great Ocean Road that runs past the famous 12 Apostles. Maybe you've headed over the Great Alpine Road. But have you heard of Victoria's Great River Road?

I hadn't until I came across it on a road trip from Albury to Corryong in the Upper Murry region of Victoria. This area is in a bit of Cul-de-sac between the Great Dividing Range and the Snowy Mountains and while not hard to get to was a bit of a road trip and it remained the last region of Victoria that I had not yet explored.

Hume Dam

Hume Dam was built between 1919 and 1936 and is the major water storage for the River Murray system. Behind it is the absolutely massive Lake Hume. Releases from Hume Dam supply irrigation, domestic and stock and urban demands for Victoria and New South Wales. As the water is not for human consumption its open for recreational usage and I spent a week in my van at a holiday park built on its shore.

Dartmouth Dam

Dams and water ways are going to be a bit of a repeating theme on this abovematt adventure. About 60 kilometres south of Lake Hum is Dartmouth Dam. While it supplements the water from Lake Hume on dry years, its also freaking huge. The dam itself is the tallest in Victoria and in spite of trying I was unable to get some photos that put it into perspective.

There aren't any made roads that go around the reservoir as it extends up into the Great Dividing Range, so we will have to make do with what we can see from the tourist park on top the dam wall.

Wymah Ferry

Okay time to hit the Great River Road proper. For a good ways it runs along one edge of Lake Hume. The road runs close to the gorgeous views of the lake.

After about 30 kilometres we come across a ferry that will take us across to Wymah, a little village on the north shore. There are 2 ferries across the 2,500 kilometre length of the Murray river. I've already got the one at Speewa under my belt so crossing here will complete the set. It doesn't cost anything so I head over for a bit of a poke around and have a good chat with the Lady who operates the ferry.

Jingellic

As you head further along the Great River Road the lake become more rivery. I plan to stop at a small village called Jingellic which has the first bridge crossing across the Murray since the start of the Great River Road, now about 80 kilometres behind us.

The country-side is utterly gorgeous and I'm getting quite peckish by the time I hit Jingellic on account of all the times I've had to stop fill my SD card with photos.

Tallangatta

I'm on the way back to my Van and come back along the southern side of the massive Lake Hume. At Tallangatta I head up to the lookout and my mental "One hell of a photo is brewing" alarm starts going off.

I've got about 15 minutes to take the 70 odd photos needed for a classic drone, straight into the setting sun, AEB panorama. I tell some nearby onlookers that I've likely got a great photo, provided I didn't panic and make a mistake.

I didn't it seems.

Huon

I was supposed to get back to my van early to clean up before heading home. But somehow a 200 kilometre road trip that included ferry crossings, chatting to locals and lots of pulling over and sending out my drone has taken all day.

But at Huon I spot a bare lonely island that sports a pair of trees rising into the last of the sunset. Its going to be a late night cleaning it seems.