Thursday 2nd April 2009

We have spent two days in the Snowy Mountains; staying on the edge of the Kosciuzsko National Park in SE New South Wales (& not a male voice chior in sight!). Kosciuzsko is the highest summit in Oz (at 2,228m - named by its Polish discoverer although I suspect the Aborigines really found it first). It is an unremarkable top which barely stands out from the rocky ridges around it until you see the crowds standing at the trig point. The park is, in the winter, a skiing area. This meant that, at the end of an Australian summer, the place had that vaguely sad, neglected air about it - it was certainly empty of people. We stayed in the desterted backpackers lodge in Jindabyne, there was us and the manager who was away with the fairies and one 'staff' member whose only role seemed to be keeper of the TV remote control. We had wonderful walking weather; completing the undemanding summit circuit, on a manicured motorway of a path which made the A40 look like a cart track. Away from the tourist path though we had the hills to ourselves with wonderful views north and south, into Victoria. Both here and the drive down fron Canberra gave us our first glimpse of how arid and vast Oz is. There are big views over boulder strewn, cinder-toffee coloured plains, punctuated by dusty tussocks of vegetation and skeleton white trees, their bony branches like witches fingers. We liked the traffic warning signs for kangaroos and wombats; unfortunately all we saw at first was roadkill, until our journey back north via the Pacific coast. In the evening sunshine by the beach at Merimbula, we came across 20-odd kangaroos grazing by the roadside. Many photos were taken! The rain eventually found out where we were! The whole of New South Wales has had outbreaks of torrential rain for the past few days, most of it mercifully (for us, but not for those who were flooded out!) north of Sydney.