To Cooma

What a day today was. Originally I planned to head to the coast, but Dave, who from now on will be known as the "Sage of Canberra", suggested a more interesting route. I am mighty pleased he did. Setting of in a westerly direction and heading to Brindabella was how the day started. Once I was out of Canberra it didn't take long to hit some really stunning countryside. There was probably 50 kilometres of dirt road along the way (you wont be getting any love letters from Holden Dave) then a well surfaced road into Tumut. 

From there it was down the Snowy Mountains Highway to Cooma but first taking another off road detour to check out two of the Yarrangobilly Caves. 

First order of the day however was to get Claire to school again. The temperature was 2.5 degrees when we left and it clearly got lower than that over night as demonstrated by Claire's graffiti on my car.

Once Claire was ensconced into the bosom of her school I set about getting out of town. At the point I hit the dirt road the temperature still wasn't above 4 degrees and car didn't get above 40 kilometres and hour. The morning sun cast long threatening shadows across the road. You would tool along at an acceptable pace then take what you thought was a shadow but was really a pothole at some inordinate speed encouraging the car to make some interesting noises (much like the break up sounds the Titanic made in that movie by the same name). I throttled the old Vectra back a little (she has to last me another 8 weeks at least) and proceeded at a more leisurely pace. It wasn't until I was ten minutes out of Tumut that the temperature finally hit double digits and the car got above 100. All in all an enjoyable drive through some mesmerising country.

When I first set off on this trip I thought I would give a rating to each of the country towns I spent time in. Well Tumut blew me away. It was clean, there was still a bank corner that had banks and everything on it (not like say Merriwa where they are anything but banks now). The corners that didn't have banks had pubs, but not the rough country pubs where you wash the blood from the walls every Saturday morning, these were well maintained, had attractive outdoor seating and friendly looking people patronising them. The town itself had it wares on display, many of the shop keepers had stock on the foot paths out the front of their shops (it would't be safe to do that in many places now). The houses were cheap ($250,000.00 would get you an acceptable brick 3 bedroom place close to town). Even the little old ladies when shopping were dressed in their finery and smelt of talcum powder. I think I even saw the town drunk and he looked respectable. The only thing they didn't have I felt I could provide, I figured if I moved there then they would have a village idiot.

I pushed on for a further 90 kilometres and spent a two hour diversion at the Yarrangobilly Caves. This was just a whimsical stop. I have been to the Jenolan, Wombeyan and Margaret River cave systems and found all of them to be fascinating. While I only saw 2 caves, the second of the two was a mini masterpiece. Plus how good was this. They apparently only get 50 visitors a day and weren't meant to guide me through because I was the only customer. However they went ahead and did it anyway, just me and the guide from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife service. It was much appreciated. These are the kind of people who give environmentalists a good name. If you ever get the chance, check this place out. 

The plan tomorrow is to head out to Jindabyne and Thredbo plus weather permitting climb Mt Kosciusko. No hangovers to deal with so I may actually do it. When I get up feeling fabulous tomorrow I'll have the words of Dean Martin ringing in my ears.

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. They wake up in the morning and that's the best they're going to feel all day."