Bright. Ovens. Hangover. What?

Autumn is on. In May, which I still can't get my head around. Christmas in summer will be even stranger though. Anyway, a quest for the perfect autumnal scene led us on a short road-trip to Bright, nestled in the heart of north-east Victoria. Several people had recommended this town and our 'Lonely Planet' Australia guide book backed up them up. The first entry under 'Bright' read: "Famous for its glorious autumn colours." Decision made.

On reaching Bright, the woman behind the counter at the Tourist Information Centre told us the best plan was to "just walk or drive around". Heeding her expert advice, we parked next to the Ovens River and walked along the bank, crossing over this decidedly wobbly bridge after a few minutes. The Ovens is one of two major rivers in this part of the world, the other being the Murray, Australia's longest, which flows through Albury-Wodonga. The prominence of these two waterways is illustrated by the local Aussie Rules competition - the Ovens & Murray Football League.

Bright almost looks like a model village from this vantage point. The Bright Autumn Festival had taken place a week earlier and the town would have been buzzing. It would have been interesting to join the festivities, but we enjoyed having the streets (almost) to ourselves.

Time to dust off the self-timer, overlooking the Ovens. Suitcase restrictions meant these were the thickest winter jackets we could bring to Australia. Needless to say, we have already done some window-shopping for proper coats.

Autumn had certainly decorated Bright handsomely, but as we arrived back in Albury and turned into our street (above), I realised that you don't always need to travel for hours in order to capture the best seasonal photos.

IN OTHER NEWS...

At work, I have temporarily been moved from the Danone roster to 'on-call', following the loss of jobs at neighbouring factory Murray Goulburn (see right). This means I have been living the life of Jack Butland, the Birmingham goalkeeper put on standby by England manager Roy Hodgson for Euro 2012.

We joined Movieland recently and hired The Hangover Part II.    It was alright.

There was a sign in Bright which confused me. It was advertising pet-friendly holiday accomodation - "because dogs deserve holidays too". Where exactly are these dogs, desperate to get away from the daily grind of their nine-to-five kennel job, in urgent need of a break by the sea? Unbelievable.