Tuesday 17th November - Canberra to Snowy Mountains

Mal was reflecting on the Canberra town plan as we drove on a mass of four lane freeways that seem to connect these dormitory suburbs/satellite towns to Canberra. It was probably a great idea from Henry Ford's perspective. Everyone has a car and drives all the time. Now it seems out of date, we surely want cities where people don't need to own a car and the landscape needs less bitumen not more.

If humanity is to survive for another thousand years, God forbid a million years, where will all these resources come from to fuel our hunger for MORE?

Some say it will come from Mars and beyond as we sail like Viking raiders across the Universe with and endless apertite for resources and wealth.

So we slunk past a suburb or call it what you may that looked like a group of large shoe boxes all glued together - crap how depressing and ugly.

Then the hills folded us into their bosom and we escaped the future back to the past and the trees stood proud not realizing the fraility of their future, wooden cows to be milked or slaughtered.

High in the mountains heading towards Tumut the road turned to dirt and we fluttered down into a deep valley like an autumn leaf makes it's slow descent, turn after turn and there we rested, put on the billy and water the water rush beneath a high level bridge.

The flies bid us a sad farewell and we drove on a much smoother dirt road across to Tumut - what a pleasant town lazing on the hillsides above the river. We did our homework re passes for the National Park for the Snowy Mountains.

Life is full of contradictions - the northern part of the park has no entrance fee and no camping fees during summer months - nice but sort of contradictory when the Southern part has fees all year around and of course camping fees as well. The real challenge is working out where to best spend one's time.

The park is huge like a large chunk of Tasmania; a 100 km does not take you far and there are numerous side roads to explore - it is really fantastic -

We camped by the rushing Yarrangobilly river and while we caught up with the neighbours, we had an early night. The evening was cool but far from cold.

Wednesday 18th - Long Plain Road - Mt Kosciuszko

Mal was out of bed as the sun lit up the Eastern sky. He walked in the dewy grass and saw the mist rising of the river and the sun finally peaking over an Eastern cloud bank and gently licking the side of the hills above the river.

The tea was made on the fresh water from the river which is just perfect. Today we rolled Gertie (motorcycle) out of her trailer and headed off for the day to scout the countryside.

The brumbies crashed across the gravel road ahead of us and the the stallion paused and confronted us. Sue was off the bike firing the camera from the hip like in an old western cowboy movie.

The stallion ran back across the road as some of his ladies had been scared to cross and then they all came back across the road as Sue made a short video of the crossing - great stuff to start the day.

The long Plain Road follows a wide treeless plain which is visually dominated by a large powerline which marches across the open spaces.

While the road was pot holed we were able to find a single track of fairly smooth gravel for the bike. There were a lot of campers at Long Plains campground, where had considered moving to - but will skip that one.

Then on we rode till er came to a beautiful spot at Cooleman Mountain - he large gums with their coats of many colours stood around in the spring sunshine on a carpet of rich green grass and considered the years past and the lost limbs and other hard times.

The Blue Waterholes were worth more time and we walked around to one of the many caves in the area, but alas our torch was inadequate and we realized that we would need a much better one to get a glimpse into these un curated natural caves.

We backtracked to Kiandra and stood on green grass under a blue sky with a substantial wind hammering us. More to explore here on another day.

Then we dropped down probably 500 meters on a steep gravel road to Yarrangobilly Caves. There is apparently a thermal pool here for a swim but it was late in the day and we thought we might revisit this place on Thursday.

Drinks with John and Sue from Newcastle by the fire before retiring to bed.

Thursday 19th - A lay day

The campground emptied out pretty much and the kangaroo Mowing Service moved in to tidy up the grass.

Mal painted, Sue read a book and the wind blew all afternoon.

Friday 20th November 2015

We packed up and drove over to Adaminiby for morning tea, we;; probably lunch if one follows o0ne of those new fangled devices, called a klock.

The hills are in many places bedecked with tall dead trees, silver grey. Underneath a new forest is heading skywards. Apparently major fires killed the tall trees back in 2003 and still the aftermath is clearly visible.

We checked out three mile dam, Northshore is not really Sydney so we skirted around to the Southside where we camped up in a vigourous westerly not far from Anne and ken. We had a campfire and chatted, so another day slips by. Whay do they pass so quickly.

Saturday 21st November

Sue's birthday, Mal's day of shame because he misses the date - he is really hopeless with dates and days - Sue still got treated to a cup of tea in bed, but she gets that almost 365 days a year, so that is not a treat.

We rode Gertie up to Cabramurra, the sky was blue and the wind had dropped away. We had coffee and Sue received 8,321 texts, phone calls and emails wishing her a happy birthday. Mal finally cottoned on.

We rode down to Kankoban, up hill and down dale. The ride was good and we refueled and watched a guy try and source a battery for his bike. Oh by the way it just happened to be a Ducati - some things never change.

We had lunch at a small café in the Kenkoban CBD.

We retraced our steps, it was a smoother ride up the mountain and we took the dirt road via Mount Selwyn and soon we were back with Vicki.

It had been a great day and Sue didn't give Mal a hard time about the birthday.

Sunday 22nd November

We moved our rig so Ken could get out and after they left we moved about three times like a dog trying to settle. We ended up in a terrific location, the only thing lacking was shelter from the wind that blows each afternoon and then generally has dropped after the sun sets.

We di the walk up to the old stamping battery and back to camp.

We spent the afternoon on our own personal persuits, painting and bird photography.

Monday 23rde November

More painting and Sue worked on her wagons.

Tuesday 24th a repeat of Monday.

How does one wax lyrical about a day doing what comes naturally. Best to get on with it and leave the narrative understood.