We headed to Jindabyne today, through the great dividing range....miles and miles of plains with hundreds of rocky outcrops. First stop was the main (ski) village. Most of the buildings were weatherboard again. We then headed 3km outside of the main town to the Snowline Holiday Park on the edge of Lake Jindabyne. We hired a 9.9hp boat (fast we know!!) and took a scenic drive around the lake!! The top of my legs got very burnt!! We would have gone swimming was it not for my fear of fish and tom's dislike of the cold!! Following a nice session in the spa, we did some laundry and even got to watch some t.v (which is a luxury since the 5" black and white telly which came with the camper doesn't work as the cigarette lighter is broken!!).... albeit, it was the cricket, but it was ok!! We even met a man who said 'Fairdinkum'!! (Despite your explanation Brian, we still don't quite understand what it means!!) On Tuesday (06/12) My parents 30th wedding anniversary, we headed west to Thredbo in the Kosciuszko National Park.... It looks like the place to be in the winter, but it was a bit deserted when we went. We bought a resort pass which gave us unlimited chairlift, bobsleding and swimming in the village. We headed up the snowgums chairlift with the intention of climbing to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, but it was a 7km uphill trek before the 7km back again, so we decided to stick to the lookout, a 5km round walk!! We had to cross over some snow on the way up! (Yeah, Australia does have snow!) Following some fun on the bobsleds (which we both almost fell off at somepoint), we headed to the Thredbo diggings camping area. It was a really pretty campsite about 1km off the main road right on the edge of the thredbo river. There were quite a few others staying there, some human, some not.... a kangeroo came right up to our camper!! (sorry, still in tourist mode!!) We made a friend, a duck, we named him Jasper (Tom's just told me 'not we', 'you'!! ok, i made friends with a duck, and i called him jasper, but tom talked to him too!!) It was another stormy night, but Jasper came back for the left overs of our pancakes in the morning, wednesday(07/12).... the storm was still going in the morning and had kept us awake all night, but we headed off for a quick swim before hitting the road again. Today was a long day..... 6 hours of driving through the whole of the national park, up through, round the mountains. We headed along the Alpine Way via the Tom Groggin area (close to NSW/VIC border) and saw our first wild Emu's! Unfortunately, our brief snap happy moment meant we were then behind a cattle truck for the next 40km!! We then went via Geehi, over Bogong creek before stopping off at scammels spur lookout, where there's a panorama of the western face of the main range. Tom had a wee here. Then, via the quiet village of Khancoban over the Tooma Reservoir and Tumut Pond to Cabramurra - the highest village in Australia!! (1488m above sea level!!) We then continued via really steep long winding roads to Kiandra, where there was nothing except the ruins of the gold rush which passed through, a few dead kangeroos and some headstones on the side of a hill were the only points of interest. Just outside of Kiandra, we removed the stick which had been stuck under elvis for god knows how long, the funny noise he'd been making for the last 5 hours went away then!! Having kept our eyes open for wombats throughout our week long road trip, we saw two... both dead and in the early stages of riga mortis!! i was devastated, but tom just found it funny!! On our way back to Cooma, the same rest area as before, we passed through Adaminaby, home of the Big Trout (there's quite a few big things around Australia, we'll try and pass as many as we can!!).....After our long day, we ended up toasting some marshmallows initially on the (very impressive - tom told me to write that) fire that tom made, but then got bored of burning our fingers and used the gas stove!!