Nearly immediately after picking-up our little Ladybug, we drove six hours through the Victorian Alps to Falls Creek, Victoria...for our special first anniversary weekend getaway...we were quite exhausted when we checked into the self-catered Viking Lodge near midnight on June 18th.Although it drizzled rain all the way up there, snow covered the ground at the Village Bowl, the Ski slopes, and the Viking Lodge, where we unloaded for the next two nights.

Here is the morning view (June 19th) from our lodge room.

Pictured below is half of the main lounge at the Viking Lodge. It's not a great picture, but you can take us at our word that the all-encompassing windows gave view to some amazing snow-covered mountain-tops.

After breaky, we dress and get ready for an afternoon of skiing. But before we go anywhere, Mike, of course, reads over the map of the Falls Creek Resort and Village so that we will know exactly where we are going...i.e. to the BEGINNER slopes! It would be a real pity to find ourselves at the top of a steep ice-covered crest with nowhere to go but down some absurdly advanced ski-slope!

We skied from 1-5PM, finallying trying a few intermediate slopes and wiping-out the whole way! (For some interesting action shots of us on the slopes, you can continue advancing through this section of the photo-album, or you can click HERE for a shortcut). Tired and sore, but still thrilled that we are able to ski at all, we walk to a nearby restaurant (Winterhaven) for a sit by an old-fashioned fireplace and a marvelous meal. Incidentally, this photo (with Melissa in the shadows) shows the roads throughout the village. No cars are allowed there in winter, so it was by these roads that we and others skied directly from the slopes to our lodge at the end of the ski-day.