Bright is a town where autumn is a seasonal event. In the Ovens Valley, in northeast Victoria, rows of maples, poplars and oaks that settlers planted turn blazing orange and yellow in late April and May, and the whole valley fills with visitors with cameras. Out of season Bright is a peaceful country town of around two and a half thousand people, with cafes, a brewery, and the Ovens River running through the middle of a park.
The town grew out of the gold rush of the 1850s, when miners flooded into the rivers and creeks of the high country. Little remains of the diggings, but the main street still has some Victorian buildings, and nearby Porepunkah, Harrietville and Beechworth have their own gold stories. The Ovens Valley lies under Mount Buffalo, a granite plateau that is a popular spot for hiking, climbing and winter skiing, while the Alpine National Park rises to the south and east.
The Great Alpine Road is the draw for riders. From Bright it climbs and drops in rolling bends through eucalypt forest, past Harrietville, and then pushes up toward Mount Hotham, one of the highest sealed roads in Australia. Surfaces are generally good, with the usual hazards of gravel, wet leaves and wildlife at dawn and dusk. Kangaroos and wombats really do appear on the road. The seasons here are real: snow and ice can close sections in winter, and summer days can be hot with bushfire risk.
Bright has fuel, bakeries and plenty of places to stay, though in autumn weekends rooms are booked well ahead. Myrtleford, about twenty-eight kilometres away, is the next large town on the way back toward the lowlands. Hotham has limited services, so fill up in Bright or Harrietville before climbing, and be prepared for sharp changes of temperature on the mountain.