Our latest adventure was taking my sister Barb and Hubby Gordon to our favorite spots in the Snowy Mountains. Here are the journals for that.
Oct 18-19
Brisbane to Sydney
We took the New England highway to get from Brisbane to Sydney. This scenic road travels through the New England highlands and goes through Guyra, the highest town in Australia at 1320 m. As we approached Sydney Bruce (our car) started to over heat on some of the hills, so we had an uncomfortable end to the trip, running with the heater on high and the windows wide open. We managed to get through Sydney Ok towing Ted, our Jayco camper and found our airport hotel quite easily. There were no eating places close by so we walked to the domestic terminal and ate there.
Oct 20
Up at 4:30 for a 5 AM breakfast and off to the international terminal to pick up my sister Barb and brother-in-law Gordon. They had not had much leg room on the flight and looked tired. We went to their hotel in Sydney to drop off luggage then back to our hotel, picked up Ted and headed south out of the city. When we stopped for fuel we noticed a coolant leak on a heater hose connection. We put in call to the NMRA but had found the part and fixed it ourselves before he arrived, even though he was very quick!
We arrived at our Cabin at Bulli in time to zap off to Wollongong to buy supplies, have lunch and enjoy our ocean views. Late in the afternoon a humpback whale put on a spectacular show about 300 m from shore, slapping the water repeatedly with its tail. Gordon thought it may have been stunning a school of fish for easy eating.
Oct 21-22
These days were spent at our Bulli cabin. On the 21 we drove north to look at the Pacific Ocean Drive, a bridge out over the ocean where loose cliffs made road maintanence expensive. On the 22nd we spent the day at a shopping centre near a Toyota dealership south of Wollongong getting Bruce's over heating problem sorted. It turned out he needed his radiator flushed, something I'd asked the Toyota people in Brisbane to do when he was serviced. If they'd done this, we would not have had a problem and wouldn't have wasted a day!
Oct 23
Drove Bulli to Ulladulla and set up in the Ulladulla Caravan park. We had fish and chips for tea after a short walk along the beach from the caravan park to the tourist information office.
Oct 24
We set out to the Budawang National park to the south east of Ulladulla to do the Pigeon House Mountain walk but the weather closed in and by the time we got to the parking lot fog was obscuring the view. This plus the roads were a bit soft and worrisome in places changed our plans and we headed off to the Jervis Bay national park on the coast north of town. Here we did a very nice but fly infested walk in coastal heath. Barb and Gordon saw their first Kangaroo here plus a number of colourful parrots. On the drive back to Ulladulla we came across a paddock that had 20-30 kangaroos feeding and sleeping about 200 m from the road. Barb and Gordon got a pretty good look and some photos, which was quite exciting for them.
Oct 25
Drove from Ulladulla to Wallaga Lake between Tilba Tilba and Bermagui. We found a camping spot with lake glimpses in one of the 3 or 4 caravan parks there. We went into Tilba Tilba and poked around in the historic touristy shops there. Barb bought a nice cheese and we all had an ice cream. We later went into Bermagui to get supplies.
Oct 26
It was a rainy day so we headed off to Bega via Tathra and tasted some wine and toured a cheese factory. We found a Woolies and bought supplies for our evening meal.
Oct 27
We broke camp and towed Ted to Tilba Tilba. From there we walked to the top of Mt Gulaga, about a 600m climb and a 5 hour round trip. After the walk we headed south to Bega and then up over the pass towards Cooma, stopping at Nimitabel for the night. This was a fairly rough town council caravan park, but would have been a fine stay except for roosters who thought dawn was an all night affair and a 21st birthday party happening close by.
Oct 28
On through Cooma to Jindabyne. We set up camp in the caravan park just west of town, which turned out to be a very nice park with lots of amenities. We used the spa pool one night and tried to use the sauna except it was too slow getting hot for us. We did some washing, shopping and went to the National Parks visitors centre.
Oct 29
The weather was windy and cloudy, threatening rain.
We drove to Thredbo Diggings camp ground and stopped to have a short walk by the trout stream there. Following that we drove on around the road to Gheehi, another parks camping ground on a beautiful trout stream. On the way Gordon spotted an Emu and after parking the car we all tried to get closer. No one got a good look but I managed to stand in some ants that had very fiery bites that left itchy marks for days. The bites seriously hurt, so much so that I was not shy at all in taking off my pants on the road to get them off my legs. Fortunately no cars came along at that moment! Once we got to Gheehi, we saw the large number of kangaroos that we had expected from our previous stay in 1998 and Barb and Gordon were able to see them close at hand and see babies in pouches and some a bit bigger who still thought they should be allowed back in, in case of danger!
On the way back to Jindabyne we did an hour and a half in-out walk on the Cascade Fire trail at Dead horse Gap
Oct 30
Windy still, but we decided to climb Mt Kosiuszko any way. This is Australia’s highest peak. The walk starts at Charlotte’s Pass and is 18 km return. I suspect that the ascent is only about 500m from that point on a very gradual climb. The wind was extreme, 60km with gusts to 80km and there was some snow on the track. In good conditions you could possibly do this climb in a wheel chair, but in the conditions we had, it was a tough walk!
Oct 31
This day we set out on the Barry Way, a drive south of Jindabyne that starts out as a bitumen road and turns into gravel. It follows the Snowy River in part and is a spectacular drive, with the road varying from winding along high hill sides to following the river valleys. We followed the road as far as Suggin Buggin where we stopped and had our lunch. On the trip in we saw an echidna and an Emu with a chick. On the trip out we saw another echidna and were able to get very close. This guy stuck his head in a tuft of grass, leaving his body sticking out and thought he was hidden!
Nov 1
Time to start heading back to Sydney. We drove through Kiandra, Tumut, Gundagai and Yass to Goulburn.
Nov 2
Rain increased as we drove from Goulburn to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains via Camden and Penrith. We managed a short walk in the rain along a small river just out of town.
Nov 3
We set out on a drive south of Blackheath into the Megalong valley. The weather improved as the day progressed and we came across a walk called the Six Foot Track which goes from near Katoomba to the Jenolan caves. We walked from the road to about 2/3 the way up the hill to Katoomba, but we ran out of time before reaching the top.
Nov 4
Today’s adventure was a drive to the Jenolan caves and a tour of the Orient cave. This is a very spectacular cave. After the tour we had lunch and went into the Nettle Cave a dry surface cave and did a self guided tour. We then walked both directions on the stream before driving back to Blackheath
Nov 5
Time for Barb and Gordon to go to Sydney. The trip in was uneventful. After lunch in the Botanical gardens, we parked our car at the hotel and had a look at their room where we said our good-byes. All in all, it was a pretty good trip.
