Graham and I spent a weekend near Beechworth recently and we visited Mt Buffalo on a beautiful sunny winter’s day. Neither of us had been up there before so we enjoyed the scenery together for the first time.

We walked the Lake Catani track and as we drew near the lake we found a path that branched off from the main track. It was on the shady side of the mountain and probably doesn’t see the sun much in the winter. Why did we think this? Have a look at this picture. It was early afternoon, after lunchtime. The sun had been up for several hours and it was well past midday.

We had to tread very carefully and hold onto the rail so we wouldn’t slip. Evenso, it was very slippery under foot. We also just stood there watching bubbles move under the ice as it slowly melted from under the sheet of ice. When you’ve got all the time in the world and not in a rush, you can see some really beautiful sights – things that many people totally miss. Later, there was a young family coming along the path from the opposite direction and we could see them in the distance but were not close enough to yell out, to tell them to look out for the ice. They probably wouldn’t have seen it till they were on top of it and the kids were racing ahead. I hope they were ok. I’m guessing they would have missed the beauty of it all and especially the vision of the ice melting under the frozen cover.