Hey, Ho, to Canberra we go...... :)

Ah, the Snowy Mountains...... its scenery for the soul!  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  We had a great time here.  Although..... there may have been a SMALLISH accident involving the car, which, for fairness' sake, I must include in the blog.  There MAY have been a ninja tree that jumped me in the dark, causing me to slightly smash the tail light.  I thought it a good effort on my part that my own ninja reflexes saved more of the car from being damaged.......

DAY 28 (23rd May):  We mostly stayed home this day, for R&R time.  Supposedly, according to the weatherman, this was the day it was going to rain.  We had clear skies until about 4pm.  :(  Anyway, this was the day of fixing the car up - Mcgyver style!

Look at that.  You'd hardly know anything was wrong!  :)  Lucky we packed the Tarzan's Grip.....
And then when we got the packing tape.....

MAGIC!  It'll last til we get back, at least.  I hope.  If not, we've got a whole roll of packing tape.....

DAY 29 (23rd May):  Thought we'd set off to find some snow to play in again today.  Unfortunately, it had been raining overnight, so I didn't think our chances were good.  Nonetheless, we hired a toboggan, and set of towards the high country......

This was Perisher Valley.  Not allowed to go on the slopes though....

I just liked the name of this ski field  It sounds like something from Red Dwarf!  :)

Eventually we found a small patch of snow that had survived the rain - not big enough to toboggan on, but enough to piff icy snowballs at each other!  Fun..... 

 J getting a shot in....

Pete giving it his best....... he missed - hehehehe!

Picking on Mummy!

Still being picked on!

Cold hands - funny that!  :)

After that, we headed back, stopping in at Sawpit Creek to have a look around.  I wanted to go for a walk, the fam weren't so keen, so off I went.....

Self portrait of me walking......  with cheesy "I feel a bit stupid doing this" grin....
I thought it was so nice, that I then went back and forced the rest of them out of the car to come with me.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha......  So we set off on a 2.6km walk around the creek.  Really pretty.

 The walking track.  M starting to cheer up, but still far from enthusiastic....

 Bridge over mountain stream.  Starting to be a bit more entertained!

 Checking out how cold the water is.  Pete spent a lot of time filming this, in the hope that he would win $10 000 from Funniest Home Video when one of us fell in.

 Family of kangaroos that we passed.  Not at all fazed by us invading their space

 More walking along the trail.....  quite a steep drop off!  But how's the serenity!?!

M ended up thinking it was pretty cool.

 Then we headed back to town

Jindabyne from the road in.

Interesting little fella I saw on the bin!  Smaller than your little fingernail, but bright green!

Pete was on dinner.  He really let his inner chef take it away!

DAY 30 (24th May):  Driving tour today!  First through Dalgety, which I was told was on the final list for being "Canberra" when they were choosing where to put it.

They seem to be in the process of replacing all these old wooden bridges - we passed a few that had been bypassed.

 Being "cool" in Dalgety - I was copying J!

After Dalgety (which we HAD pictured as being slightly larger) we went on to a place called Bombala, which is meant to be the "Platypus Capital" of Australia.  The fine print, if we had read it, would have mentioned that it's only the capital at dawn and dusk, and if its not windy.

As it stood, we effectively just went and visited a nice spot on the river, and looked at the way the wind rippled across it's surface.  And then got back in the car.

 Nice old pub at Bombala.

Then we drove to a place called  Nimmitabel, which on the maps, is said to have a lollyshop.  It does.  It just only opens on the weekends.  So pretty much we then drove home!  What a grand day out!  All part of the adventure......  :)

Old railway siding on the way home.

DAY 31 (25th May):  Packed up the the morning and headed off, aiming for Canberra to stay with my bro Al and his uber-cool family (there you go Rach! :-D), which the kids were really looking forward to, as there are cousins around the same ages.  We were super efficient in our packup, and managed to leave by 9am, so, as we weren't due to arrive until after 3pm, I suggested that as we "had some time to kill" why don't go see some stuff.  Famous last words! "Some stuff" ended up being 6 hours worth of sights.  But what a day.  It was awesome.  Like, totally.  Let me share with you.....

First stop was Adaminaby, home of the "World's Largest Trout". And not much else.....  However, then we went out to find "Old Adaminaby" which was one of the towns that had to be shifted because of the Snowy River Scheme.  Lucky Lake Eucumbine was a bit low, so we could see bits and pieces of left over houses.

 Walking down the front path....  You can see in the background how low the lake was, all of this would have been under water if it was full.

Steps to nowhere.....

From there, I had wanted to see one of the old huts in the Snowies, and the most accessible one was the Currango Homestead.  It didn't look too far on the map, but the roads were gravel and single lane, so it took a while.  Turned out it wasn't really a hut, but it was still pretty cool.

 This was the slaughter house!  Which ruins the sense of nostalgia that I was trying so hard to create.

 I liked the way the wood twisted around, as if it had been wrung out.....

 Stables and carriage house

 Outhouses!  :)

Again, the wildlife weren't too fazed to see us there!  Even the baby wanted to check us out :)

From there, we noticed on the map that we were close-ish to some thermal springs, if we took a shortcut across the table lands.  The map said 4WD, and we're tough, so off we went.  Was pretty cool, as we got to see some brumbies, which I'd secretly been wanting to see as a result of reading both Banjo Patterson verse, and the Silver Brumby books as a kid.  There was no silver ones though.... but here we go...... more movies, now that I've become so tekkernogically adept!

TECHNICALLY, the brumbies are a real pest that the parks don't really seem to know what to do about.  But they are such a joy to see running free.....  :)  And they weren't worried by us cruising through their neighbourhood at all.

Not that we were cruising.  This is what we were doing.......

It wasn't graceful.  And the car did not look pretty at the end of it!  But it WAS fun!

Once we FINALLY crossed there, we found the track to the springs - its was really steep, and zig-zagged down the side of the mountain.  Took about 15 minutes to descend, through a wilderness of mountain gum trees, then all of a sudden, at the bottom, there was manicured lawns, and a parks office!  Bizarre....  Then a five minute drive and a walk down a very steep track through bush to find.....

 

 View from the track down.

 Amazingly clear water....

 Me going for a dip

The kids had a ball!  The toddler pool was a bit algae covered - not really the season for swimmers, I guess! 

How magic is that?  Spectacular, and there wasn't another soul within coo-ee distance.  We went down there wearing jumpers, beanies, etc, but the water is a constant 27 degrees, so swimming was lovely!  Not that Pete found that out - Captain Wussy Pants!  I do have to say that coming OUT of the water was NOT so lovely, and one tended to dress pretty fast! 

After that, we continued on to Canberra, arriving a LITTLE later than anticipated, but what a day!  Has to have been one of my favourite days so far.

We stayed in Canberra for two days, doing not very much - just enjoying family time, not to mention a roof over our heads and proper beds!  But Canberra will have to wait until next time.

As always, stay safe and well,

K, P, M & J x

In Search of Snow......

Have arrived at Jindabyne, and have a few adventures unaccounted for - can't be having that!  So, sitting here with my thick socks, beanie and thermals on, let me share.....

DAY 24 (18th May): We continued on from Puffing Billy to Badger Creek, near Healesville, where we set up camp for the night - a beautiful campsite, if you're ever in the area! 

Woke up in the early hours of the morning to hear scratching coming from under us in the trailer - when I shone the torch in, this is what I saw!  Reckon he was trying for my stash of porridge oats - lucky they were well enough hidden - I needs me porridge on these cold mornings!

The campsite in early morning.  As you can see, again, we are doing it tough with over-crowded campsites.  Just as well we are so sociable.....

The campsite also had a jumping pillow - I'd never seen one - but good fun!  Especially since we didn't have to share it with anyone....

Healesville meant a visit to the Sanctuary, with many native animals to view:

 Eagle statue at the entrance.

 A shy owl.....

 Child #1 was being a bit cranky-pants at this point......

This is how its done!!  :)

Us at the Flight Spectacular - fantastic display of different birds, trained to fly right over the audience.  Even had a trained wedge-tail!

Cwocodile.....

They also had platypusses..... platypii (??) ... which are just great to watch.  I'd like a nice pet platypus for Christmas, please.

Anyway, after Healesville, we set off through the Dandenongs....

 ....Through beautiful countryside and crazy turns like this

....to another overcrowded campsite at Heathcote, where we stopped for the night. 

DAY 25 (19th May):  Technically, Heathcote was a stopover on the way to Echuca, but upon a quick google, we discovered a local adventure to be had - Heathcote had some "Pink Cliffs" to be seen!

 The clouds meant that the photos don't really do the colours justice.  And again "Smile for the camera, J"........ STARFISH!!

Not a natural phenomena - Heathcote had a goldrush, like many places in the day, and instead of the normal sluicing, someone decided it would be an awesome idea to use a water cannon - resulting in the above.  They only lasted about 6 months before being shut down, but by then, the damage was done.

From Heathcote, we traveled to Echuca - and the paddle-steamers!  The Murray is a reasonably large river!  Booked a port tour that included a cruise - fabulous stuff.  Steam engines run almost silently, so the only noise is the sound of the paddles hitting the water.... magic.......

Us on the Adelaide.  Interesting story about the bridge in the background - took three years to build, and then wasn't opened for three years, as neither NSW or Victoria could agree on who should host the opening!  Finally started being used when the townspeople "stormed" the bridge in frustration.  And its technically never been opened!  AND (cos I know you all appreciate this little lesson in Australian history) until recently, railway maps missed out the little bit that went over the river - ha!  Ok, going back to the pictures...

The steam engine....

Trees on the side of the Murray.  More interesting facts - any tree that falls in the river can't be moved, because of the environment they provide for the native fish.  Even if it blocks the river for the boats.

 The wharf.  You walk right down to the bottom to get on the boats

 

 The Adelaide - the oldest working paddle-steamer in the world.  In it's heyday, it was a freight boat, and used to tow barges carrying the equivalent of 40 semi-trailer loads of wood.  Full of facts today, aren't I?

J making friends with the local cat.  

DAY 26 (20th May):  Today started at the National Holden Museum.  Gotta love a Holden or two!  Or fifty.....

There's just something about Toranas........  :-D

Ever onwards - from Echuca, we headed to Albury-Wodonga.  Along the way, we found another uncharted Big Thing 

By now, being an aficionado of the Big Thing, I was a little disappointed in this one.  It seemed a little too mass produced - they have ones remarkably similar in the playground in Donnybrook.  It was pretty funky though.  Check out his shoes!

Continuing on the way, there was the big Wine Bottle (as if I could miss that one out!) in Rutherglen:

Which was actually, as you can probably tell, the old water tower converted into a "bottle".
We also stopped in at Numurkah, where Pete's Mum grew up - these ones are for you, Dot  :)

 The main street

 Primary school

 High school

 The neighbours - still the same?  The Cooks?  He still drives the school bus.

 The house that is now on your old property

The dairy??

And just an FYI  :)  Hope we found the right place - we went to the information centre, and the lady called up someone from the Historical Society, who came in from "the farm" to look it all up for us.  So now we have an old surveyance map with all the properties on it.

So, back on the road - where did we stay?  Albury. It had the cheaper caravan parks!  So into NSW we went.... but just for overnight.

DAY 27 (21st May):  Course set for Jindabyne!  I wanted to travel over the Alpine Way, but we'd heard mixed reports on whether we should or shouldn't do it, towing a trailer.  So we TRIED to be responsible, but unfortunately (!!) the parks office was closed in Khancoban, and so there was noone to tell us that we shouldn't.  And what an awesome drive it was.  Man from Snowy River country (I just bought Banjo Patterson's book of verse!) - just glorious.  Has anyone else read the Elayne Mitchell "Silver Brumby" series?  I LOVED them as a kid, and they were set in the Snowies - fantastic to see all these places referred to in the books.  Ok, to pictures - there's lots - I love this part of the world  :)

Stopped in Glenrowan to check out the Ned Kelly museum ("Smile for the camera, J"!) - if you're ever in the area, the museum attached to this statue is probably NOT the one you should see - walk further down the street.  Interesting though - the letters he wrote to various people are worth a read.

 Lake Hume...

 Stopped off to go for a walk down a track....

 .... to an old railway bridge in the middle of the bush.

M "waiting" for slow ol' Mum to get back to the car.  He's not really into his nature appreciation.

 Then stopped in Corryong - the home of The Man from Snowy River.  I didn't know it based on a real person's ride!  More with the history - evidently there was this bushman Jack Riley, who lived right up in the mountains, running the cattle for a station.  Used to know the bush really well, and had a hut up there.  Banjo Patterson stayed with him a night, and got the story of this wild ride he went on after a valuable colt, and a few months later, there was the poem! 

 High country valleys.

 Looking out at Scammell's Ridge Lookout.

Mountain stream - Leatherbarrel Creek.

 First glimpses of Snow  :)

 Stopping for a play at Dead Horse Gap.  We stopped, and another family had stopped as well - they were much better kitted out than us for snow weather!  Anyway they said that we could borrow their toboggan......

 Wooohooooo!

Trying to be tricky here - hope the movie works!  Does this count towards my professional development, all this self taught techno stuff?

 Snowballs..... the snow was actually very old and icy, but hey, you work with what you've got, eh?

 M anticipating a snowball....

Slopes of Threadbo - not quite up to par yet....

Finally we made it to Jindabyne, where we are now.  There.  I've caught up with myself!  More adventures to follow - we're out looking for more snow today, although I'm not sure if we'll find it, as it rained last night.....

As always, stay safe  :)

K, P, M & J