We drove out of the back of Lakes Entrance just after 6.30, so there was no opportunity for me to take any photographs of the town. We were heading for the Snowy Mountains, and were soon into alpine scenery. This was still farmland with a lot of cows, but we could easily have been in Switzerland, the hills were high and very green and manicured.
After a while, the scenery became less manicured and there were more trees, and we pulled off onto a dirt road to have a koala hunt. Apparently this is a good area for them, and in a few hundred yards we saw two, both very high up in tall trees. The first one was fast asleep. The second one was awake and surveyed us from its lofty perch with a complete lack of interest. Both were really too high to get good pictures.
We then joined the Barry Way, an old drovers route, built along what used to be an Aboriginal migration route. We were soon on dirt roads, mostly very narrow, and with a very steep drop indeed at one side. The views didn't exist because of the clouds and mist filling the valleys, which might have been just as well - Paul said it was the scariest road he had ever driven on, being so narrow and with no barriers to stop you falling into the abyss below.
We drove slowly past the town of Seldom Seen, population 2. It is classed as a town because it has a service station - or rather, it IS a service station. One of the population considers himself an artist and has covered the side of the road in what I can only describe as art installations. There are such things as a kangaroo with bits carved from wood and other bits made from chicken wire. There are several bicycles hanging from trees, and arrangements of old wrecked cars, some with pertinent graffiti. Unfortunately I failed to get a picture because I was on the wrong side of the bus and the road was too narrow for us to stop.
Our next visit was to the town of Suggan Buggan, population 1. There had been a population of 300, but the town was burned down in the fires of 2003, and never rebuilt. Just outside the town, one house wasn't touched, and that still houses the population of 1 - she is an artist. Just beside her property is the historic schoolhouse, originally built around 1860.
It is absolutely tiny, just big enough for a small table and two benches. At one end is a tiny room, not much bigger than a cupboard, for the schoolteacher to live. At the other end is a wooden chimney! Yes, it seems hard to believe. Inside, the fireplace is lined with rough stones, and I wondered if perhaps the smoke going up the chimney would not itself be sufficiently hot to set the wood alight. The planks that made up the walls are gaping now, one can only hope they fitted a bit better in 1860!
We continued on our way, encountering the occasional kangaroo and wallaby, and even a couple of emus, and approached the Snowy River itself. The river is wide and winding and quite full at present, flowing between thickly wooded slopes. We passed the Victoria - New South Wales border and entered Mount Kosciusko National Park. The next stop was Jack's Lookout, which gave us a wonderful view of whole Snowy River valley.
We drove on on higher, and stopped at another good view from Wallace Craigies lookout, with blue hills disappearing away into the distance.
We continued for some time on the narrow dirt track passing along scary slopes, but eventually left the National Park, and found ourselves back on tarmac roads and into farmland. The rolling hills were grey-green this time, but still full of cattle. We stopped in Jindabyne for lunch; it is a ski resort, but there are no ski runs from there, you need to go up to one of the higher resorts to ski. You can catch the ski tube, which is a train, from outside the town.
We drove on up to Threadbo, a higher resort which has ski lifts, and from which there was an intention to take the chair lift up the mountain and then have a walk. I was struck down by exhaustion and had to go to bed for the afternoon, but Paul went up, and they managed a walk to the first lookout before having to get back to catch the last lift down. There was a fair bit of snow still up there, though the ski season is now over.
Most people had had to hire snow boots to keep their feet warm and dry. They had some good views from the lookout, though Mount Kosciusko was all but invisible in the clouds. Paul said it was very cold on the chairlift on the way down.
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