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6th February 2009.
Leaving Dubbo, we hoped that we we're leaving the heat wave behind as we meandered our way south to Canberra. No such luck, it's even hotter at 44 degrees and as the caravan park is quiet, we check out all the empty sites looking for one with some trees and the best shade.
Canberra:
The first thing that struck us about Canberra was how easy it was to find our way around the city and how layed back the drivers seemed to be. Even in the 5 o'clock rush hour, the traffic flowed well and everyone was driving sensibly, no speeding and no tail-gating, a pleasant change. Although we managed to film and photograph everything from the outside, no interior filming etc for security reasons. We did notice people with small video cameras filming, but they wouldn't let us in with our gear :(
We visited all the main buildings and parks etc and that was basically it for Canberra. Yes, it's definitely worth the visit to see the iconic buildings and where our great country is governed from, plus some of the other shops (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more), but yep, that was it for us.
Snowy Mountains:
8th February - We were looking forward to the Snowy Mountains, as we've heard so much about the whole area. The long, hard haul up the ranges in the 40 degree heat with the caravan in tow, again took it's toll on Tinkerbelle and we stopped twice to let her cool down. Just running a bit hot coz of the load she's pulling up the steep mountains and just to be safe, we made the stops so she didn't boil over.
We based ourselves at Old Adaminaby on the shores of Lake Eucumbene and the locals were complaining about the heat we'd bought with us,"never seen anything like it". We woke up during the night freezing our proverbialls off, with the temperature plummiting to 4 degrees, so the heater remained on for the rest of the night. Looking out over the Lake in the morning, the clouds were extremely low and seemingly floating across the water. Although it warmed up to 9 degrees during the day, we had to wear jeans and jacket for the rest of the stay.
Despite the cold, The Snowy Mountains were absolutely awesome and the 7 Hydro Electro power stations are mind blowing considering they were conceived and started back in 1949 and took 25 years to complete. All the lakes are stocked with trout and the mountains must be awesome in the winter when it's all covered in snow.
The highlight for us was Thredbo and Mt. Kosciuszko. Thredbo is only a small village in the valley at the base of Mt. Kosciuszko and although very quiet when we were there, it's packed to capacity when the snow falls and the skiers arrive. The 15 minute trip up on the ski lift took us into the clouds and we couldn't see anything all the way up or from the highest restaurant in Australia at 1930 meters. From there, we started walking to the lookout and eventually broke through the clouds and WOW, the warm sun plus the views made it all worthwhile.
We walked the whole 2kms up to the lookout without a stop and Marlene amazed both of us. The summit was another steep 13 kms round trip, so gave that a miss. On the walk back down to the ski lift, she even tried a "jump for joy" and managed to get those feet 2 inches of the ground :)
Life On The Road:
Unbelievable, just seen on the news that the temperatures have hit 48 degrees and the fires have started in Gippsland, just outside Melbourne. That's our next stop so need to slow down and make a stopover till it's settled down a bit. |
Our Trip 
