A Weekend In The King Valley

Once a year, hubby and I make our annual pilgrimage to King Valley Camp, visit friends, take photos, cruise the wineries, and have some ‘downtime’.  And with no internet at the camp, downtime is total. So I found myself driving down the road each day and pulling up to the side of the road to catch up with emails and FB.  Shocking, I know. 

Rain, Rain, go away

The weather forecast for the weekend was rain, but we were lucky with no rain except late at night when we were all in bed. So we could do a bit of travelling around during the day.

The King Valley
The King Valley

On Friday, we drove up to Powers Lookout.  Named after the bushranger who reputedly had a camp there in the 1860s, he used the high vantage point to watch for approaching troopers.   We usually just stop at the upper lookout and take a few shots. 

Powers Lookout

This time, feeling a bit stupid and adventurous, I decided to try the ‘other’ northern lookout.  The steps seemed ok at the start, heading downhill via steps cut into the rock, but ok.  Then they got steeper, massive, single steps where really two would have been better. The stone steps kept going down, then changed to steep metal stairs, shimmy through a gap,  past a big rock in the middle of the path (glad I hadn’t had lunch yet), then UP metal stairs to the northern lookout. (I should have stopped and taken photos of the track, but I was saving my energy to keep the lungs and legs working)

The King Valley
The King Valley

The northern lookout gave a different and better view, so the walk was worth it. But OMG I paid for it the next day with very sore legs. So we shot off quite a few photos, then started the trek back, with lots of stops along the way to catch our breath, admire the view. 

powers lookout
powers lookout
The King Valley
powers lookout
Chrismont Winery

From Powers Lookout, we headed to lunch and then Chrismont Winery.  It’s a beautiful building that won a design award and offers magnificent sweeping views of the valley from the tasting room.  I may have liberated a couple of bottles of their delicious Prosecco while I was there.

The King Valley
The King Valley
The King Valley
The King Valley

That evening we played with some light painting, new toys, trying out various ideas.

The King Valley
lightpainting
light painting
light painting

We did see some rain that night, but the following day was lovely and sunny again.  We enjoyed a slow start to the day and then headed up the road to Lake William Hovell.  Fabulous reflections and very quiet, we had the place to ourselves, apart from a few fishermen.

The King Valley
lake William hovell
The King Valley
reflections
The King Valley
reflections

We had planned to do more light painting that evening, but the rains really came down not long after dinner, and we were futilely huddled under the awning waiting for them to pass, which they really didn’t.  The Olympus held up well in the rain, but I found that the wi-fi to my iPhone doesn’t work too well when I have cold, wet fingers. So mental note to self, make sure I have my wired remote in my bag!

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