Sarah Salleh's Blog: Mount Hotham Trip Part 2

This is a sequel of my previous post which can be found here.

Day 1: Leaving from Melbourne to Mount Hotham

Woke up at 6.15am. Showered, did my make up. made the bed, turned off the heater, closed all windows. Hubs carried the huge shoulder bag that have all of our clothes, I carried my hand bag, the camera bag, the tripod, and a shopping bag that's filled with light food. Both of our hands were literally full we couldn't possibly carry more. We made sure we had our Myki in our pockets, got on the tram at 7.30 am and headed towards the Southern Cross Station.

Once we reached there, hubs asked me to wait for him at Hungry Jacks cuz he needed to go to the loo. When I entered the premise, I sat next to an Asian lady who was standing beside her table. Soon later, hubs came, ordered some food and brought our breakfast for us to eat. I was so hungry and was so into my burger that when I finished it in like 15 minutes later, I just realized the lady was still standing there! She just stared at the same spot, expressionless. I told hubs in Malay about it and of course he didn't realize anyone was standing there cuz like me, he was in his own world when he ate his meal. Haha! I just find it weird. Weird as in creepy weird, not funny weird. Oh well.

About 8.30 am, we went to the gate. We were super early and thought we should queue now before everybody else start to come. We need to pick the best seats! Eventually, the bus came. The bus driver came out, introduced himself to us. Told us there would be 4 people riding the bus including us and need to pick up one more person at the airport. Sweet. Guess we don't have to fight for seats now. Yay! Wanting to take photos with the bus with my phone and my newly bought monopod (so semangat!), I slid my hand into my hand bag and rummaged through to find the phone. Hmm that's not it. That's my wallet. What's thing metal thing. Oh, its the monopod. Wait a sec. Did I bring my phone?

Yeap. Phone's not there. Left. It. At. Home.

&(^()^&*(@&&#*$&*(&!&*(@!!!

After ten minutes of letting my frustration alarm go off, its time to reset and just enjoy the trip with whatever I have. No point of getting myself irked over small things. I still have my big professional camera to play with right? But I can't help but to sigh everytime I look at the monopod. Lol.

The other two passengers arrived and the bus took off at 9 am. The journey was very smooth, no music was played throughout (which was great cuz I get to sleep for a good one hour) and there was no traffic. My only complain is there was not much room for our long legs as our knees were already hitting the front seats. So imagine our relief when we stopped for a lunch break. Hallelujah!

Our first official photo of the trip.

About 12.30 pm, we reached Myrtleford and had to change from the bus to a van. The sun was scorching hot but the air was dry so I wasn't worried about getting sweaty. We took our bags and placed them in the new vehicle. The new driver seemed nice, he was all smiling and cheerful when he greet us. Oh, the last driver was hilarious too. So thanks Snowball Express for your wonderful drivers!

The pick up van at Mytrleford

Bye-bye huge bus. Thanks for bringing us here in one piece. Or two pieces. Err which one is correct but U know what I mean :P

And the journey continued. It took about 30 mins to reach Bright, which is at the bottom of Mount Hotham. Let's just say it's like Genting Sempah to Genting Highlands. So the winding road now begins! Now I'm getting a little bit more excited but I was really nervous at the same time. We've heard stories about buses plunging down the cliffs and all. Not sure about Australia, but in KL I think I've heard four to five times of such stories throughout my life. I can't stop uttering prayers quietly when we were going up the mountain.

About 40 minutes later, the scenery was changing slowly from thousand rows of rough dry trees to an open land with splotches of white ice on the ground. The winding has become lesser and we get to drive at least 100 metres straight up without making a turn. White snow has multiplied and did a good job covering the grounds by the road. Not long after that we came to a sign board which confirmed our destination.

Finally. Took us about 6 1/2 hours to reach here. My bum was getting cramps.

Right after seeing the signboard, we were already entering the small town of the Mount Hotham. The bus driver dropped us at the Tourist Lounge and we headed towards the Hotham Central to get our lift passes. Once that was done, we walked towards our chalet which was about 150 metres away from where we were.