You can drive to Canberra from Melbourne non-stop along the Hume Highway in 7 hours. We do this a lot as our daughter lives in Canberra. However, in late November, we decided to take our campervan and veer off on a few side trips to explore some of the river and mountain towns, on the way including Wodonga, Walwa, Tumbarumba, Jugiong. It was worth the detour(s) as we discovered some stunning lookouts, cool swimming holes, humble hamlets, and rail trails.
Melbourne to Wodonga- Lake Hume, Ebden.
The drive along the Hume Hwy to Wodonga is a fairly uneventful 3 hour 30 minute journey via Seymour, Euroa, Benalla (great art gallery on the river for coffee/lunch and Botanical gardens to stretch the legs) Wangaratta then in to the sleepy Victorian town of Wodonga, always in the shadow of its more showy New South Wale’s twin town sister, Albury. From here we veered east 13 km to Lake Hume, a massive weir that stretches from Wodonga to Corryong and snaffled a spot at the free camp at Ludlow’s Reserve in Ebden. We enjoyed a peaceful lakeside dinner but nearly got blown away by 100km winds in the early morning!
The next day we unhitched our bikes and rode 20 kilometres (40 km return) along the High Country rail trail following Lake Hume most of the way in to the pretty town of Tallangatta. We had morning tea at the Bakery, shopped in the craft store, and refilled our water bottles in the park before heading back to Ebden.
Wodonga to Walwa
We left the Wodonga region around lunchtime after our bike ride and drove east 1 hour, 30 minutes along the meandering Murray Valley highway to the sprawling country town of Corryong. This town has seen better days with many shops closed and there was an air of abandonment about it but that might have been the heat! We continued north east to Towong on the NSW border where Jack Riley (Man from Snowy River legend) came from and stopped a little further on at two spectacular lookouts; Farrans Lookout which offered spectacular views from over the mighty Murray river and the Jim Newman lookout which looked across the Murray River valley to Kosciusko and the snowy mountains. We hugged the mighty Murray River all the way into the tiny hamlet of Walwa where we stayed at the Riverside caravan park nestled along the Murray. The most popular activity at this park is to grab a beer and a pool noodle, jump in the river upstream and float ‘n sip your way downstream to the boat landing. We decided to just do the swim part and was amazed by how refreshingly cool the river was and how strong the flow! This whole area was devastated by the 2019 Xmas fires, and you could see blackened hills stretching for miles with bright green undergrowth making it look promising. The blazing sunset we enjoyed that night eerily mirrored the photos of the fires pinned to the camp kitchen wall that nearly wiped out the town 12 months earlier. The next morning, we took the short walk in to the town of Walwa to visit the Spotted Goanna gallery and had a good chat to the owner, Steven, about his very impressive collection of indigenous artefacts. He told us that a man was in his gallery playing one of his sacred didgeridoos as the fires descended on the town in November 2019 when the wind swung around and changed direction away from the town, saving them all.
Tumburumba to Tumut to Jugiong
Monday we drove1 hour to the tiny town of Tumbarumba – there’s a couple of sights worth visiting here including Paddy’s River falls a nice detour 18 km down Tuma road from town and then a short walk down to a pretty short but impressive waterfall as well as a couple of nice wineries. From there it’s 1hr30m to Jugiong one of our favourite towns on the way to Canberra, 63km out of Yass. This little gem boasts a stellar gastro-pub and the famous Long Track Pantry for delicious food 10-4pm. Then it’s just1hr 30m up and over to Canberra via Yass. Find out what to see and do in Canberra on our Canberra highlights Post.
