The Snowy Mountains – Day 18

Apologies as again there will be no pictures, as we have no Internet. I am able to tether my mobile to upload the blog, but to do anything else is beyond my bandwidth. Hopefully we will have a good Internet connection in Canberra tomorrow.

Well the Snowy Mountains have surpassed our expectations, mainly due to the unexpectedly good weather. We have been looking at the mountain forecast for the last week, thinking we would have rain today. In fact it has been very sunny and has only just started to cloud over. As a result we have been able to see the Snowy Mountains at their best. Once again we were mainly within the boundary of the Kosciuszko National Park. The infrastructure here is obviously geared for crowds of people, the attendant at the park tollbooth stated that during the winter season tens of thousands are on the slopes. It was so quiet today that we were able to sit in the car talking to her for ten minutes before another vehicle appeared.

The road’s primary purpose is to provide access to the ski resorts. Why is it that ski resorts the world over outside of the winter season look so ugly? We drove to the head of the road at Charlottes Pass from where there is a lookout over the highest peaks in Australia, the tallest being Mount Kosciuszko at 2228 metres. It was certainly very clear today looking across one of Australia’s very few alpine environments. Even at this height there are still eucalyptus trees, it is the only tree that grows everywhere in Australia. 

We then found a secluded shady picnic site for a sandwich lunch. From the site there was a six-kilometre hike to a waterfall through the eucalyptus woods. The trees here had all been burnt in a natural fire in 2003, but had already regenerated. Indeed this is the natural way the eucalyptus tree grows, shedding its bark to create flammable material on the forest floor that will catch light during lightening storms. 

We then meandered back down the valley to the area’s centre Jindabyne where we had found an excellent café for coffee and to watch the world go by. Tonight we did some shopping, as having our own apartment it is good to eat in for a change. The prices were interesting, I thought that they compared favourably with the UK, and some things were cheaper. $15 for a kilo of coffee beans was music to my ears; well obviously the fresh fruit was plentiful and reasonable.

Now I omitted something from yesterday’s blog. We drove through the town of Corryong, which was the last place in Victoria. There they made great play of a Jack Higgins who was the model for a poem by Banjo Patterson. It was only today that we realised that Banjo, why wasn’t I christened with a great name like that, was the author of Waltzing Matilda. I should have stood in the town street and sung at the top of my voice.