Day 28

28 February 2013

Last night we had torrential rain. The camper is soaked and we are ready to get out of here! We waited till 8am in the hope that the rain would subside however we were not that lucky! Putting on our just dried raincoats, we headed outside to start packing up and get soaked again!

Packed up and back on the road heading towards Mallacoota, just over the Victorian border. The trip was about 4 hours and it did not stop raining the whole time we were travelling! There was not one break in the rain it was so constant.

Made it to Mallacoota and it was surprise surprise, wet and rainy too! We yet again donned our raincoats and set up in the rain! We decided to do a full setup with full annexe so if it did rain the whole time we were here at least we could sit in the annexe rather than being contained to the camper.

Set up and what happens....rain stops! Typical! Had some lunch, did some washing (the new age way), checked out the water and did a bit of shopping at the local shops. Mallacoota is right on the water and is known for its fishing...and that is very noticeable when every caravan here also has a boat attached to it somewhere! So tomorrow we are hoping for a fine day and good fishing! Will let you know if we get either!

Apologies for late blogs, we ran out of power in this shit weather so we are now on a powered site at Mallacoota which is a luxury! Another luxury that we have missed is a hot powerful running shower! (The Coleman 30 sec showers we have been having just aren't cutting it!) I jumped in the shower here, pretty much after we had set up, and it took all my strength to get out! (I really only did, for fear of the lady outside of the shower timing me and yelling at me for using too much water) haha. It was pure heaven and I am already looking forward to the next one! Oh the little things that seem so big right now!

Raining again tonight! Over being wet!!

Carly & Joel

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Day 27

27 February 2013

Today we woke to rain, rain and more rain. We were planning to walk to the summit of Mount Kosciusko today so we decided to take a drive to Thredbo first and see what the weather was like there. From our campsite it is about 15 mins to Thredbo.

At Thredbo it was raining even heavier and we were really not prepared with the right gear to walk in this weather. Joel had no rainproof jacket and we were going to get soaked. We went for a bit more of a drive past Thredbo to see what else was around. There are a lot of different walks that can be done along this road however none of them are pleasant in the rain.

We decided that there would be no point in coming here if we didn't attempt Mount Kosciusko! Back to Thredbo we had a look in a few shops hoping to pick up a cheap jacket, of course they were all about $500! We then went to the sports centre to buy our tickets to the chair lift to start our summit walk. They had a few jackets on sale and there was a full waterproof, wind proof, breathable snow jacket on sale for $80! So Joel got this and we were then ready for our walk.

Something to eat in the cafe before we go up on the chair lift. World's biggest Anzac biscuit $4, and sausage roll for $6.50. Now onto the chair lift, the pass is $32 each for an all day pass on the chair lift. The chair lift was pretty cool, you can imagine when it is snowing how much cooler it would be but there was still some good views and it was an experience (for people that haven't been on a chairlift before). This was made even more of an experience as it was pouring rain and we were both just hiding in our rain jackets hoping we would be at the top soon! Made it to the top and we were soaked! Still pouring rain, wind is getting stronger we push on to our first destination the Mount Kosciusko Lookout which is 2km from the chair lift.

I would love to say we just loved the views and it was an amazing walk....the truth is we could barely look up as the rain was pounding our faces and if we did look up all you could see was all the fog overtaking the view anyway! There is a steel boardwalk all the way to the lookout and it is an easy walk. We made it to the lookout and looked out and saw ....FOG! At this point we decided there was no point in pressing on to the summit as it was another 4.5 km plus getting back and we wouldn't be able to see anyway and we were already wet and freezing! This was so disappointing!! I really wanted to do it and just seemed like an epic fail but we decided we would like to come back in ski season so we will get another chance to climb. (Some comfort).

My big Anzac biscuit (ok half of it, I was hungry!)

 

We headed back to the restaurant at the top of the chair lift to try and find some warmth. I found warmth in a hot chocolate...mmmm and Joel found warmth in a $8.50 Kosciusko beer (which he was not very keen on)!

Back down the chairlift and the fog lifted and rain cleared for our ride down so we could enjoy it a little more. At the bottom we are wet, cold, disappointed and ready to get into some dry clothes so headed back to camp for a quiet night.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 26

26 February 2013

Today we packed up early and left Moruya at around 9am bound for Mount Kosciusko NP. We headed towards Bega then onto Cooma and out to Jindabye which is near the edge of the NP. We stopped at a nice little bakery at Nimmitabel on the way to Cooma. It was a lovely little town, not much there but lolly world, few cafes and some toilets (which we were in desperate need of)! Worth a stop if you are in this neck of the woods.

Between Bega and Nimmitabel there is quite literally nothing, and I mean nothing. I know people always say that Australia is so diverse but I have now seen it with my own eyes and I haven't even been to remote parts of it yet! There was just flat nothingness, no trees, no houses, dry dry land and then we come to a steep range and the whole landscape changes again, more like rainforest (very similar to Dorrigo, winding and steep) over that then flat land with some dead looking trees everywhere and big boulders then BANG a town with a population of 8000, shops everywhere (Cooma)! Saw 10 or more different landscapes in this drive!

At the national park and there are gates manned at each entry.

You can just drive through at no cost however if you want to stay or spend the day, there is a per day fee which is $16. This may seem expensive but this includes your camp fees too so $16 a night is pretty cheap! We are staying at Thredbo Diggings as this is the one suggested to us by Jindabyne Info Centre as it is close to a few different things like Thredbo, Mount Kosciusko Summit Walk, Chair lifts etc.

We set up and good news we have already made some friends! 7 of them in total, obviously people feed them as they were not bothered by us at all and were quite happy to come close and explore under and around the van! A little too close for my liking!

Started our fire which took 3 goes to light as we didn't have enough small stuff to get it going. Our plan was to cook up dinner on the provided fire BBQs (pictured below) go for a bit of a fish in the river, finish the washing and settle in for some marshmallows around the fire.....

Well let me tell you how it really went.....fire raging finally after 3 attempts, I have just rinsed, squeezed out and hung all the washing that was in our "washing machine", Joel has put the yabby pot in and is preparing his fishing rod and ..........RAIN, pouring RAIN! Washing soaked, Joel soaked as he had just made it to edge of the river ready to fish, everything outside soaked, fire soaked, only place to go....inside the van! So this is where we have been all arvo as there is nowhere else to go.

We shouldn't complain as our neighbours are in a small pop up tent! And I know everywhere else is copping rain too so we aren't the only ones...will be pretty peeved if raining tomorrow cuz there won't be much to do, however I am willing to climb Kosciusko in the rain!!

All I have to say about the washing scenario is....I know why we invented washing machines! Doable but not advisable! There are laundromats everywhere...

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 25

25 February 2013

There was a pretty bad storm yesterday arvo but lucky for us it didn't really turn into much. Made more noise than anything with the thunder but we woke up to beautiful blue and not a cloud in the sky!

We were going to go fishing this morning for the last time here, but unfortunately the storm had washed a LOT of debris into the river and ocean so there was no chance of that happening. On the bright side we could have scored a bucket or soccer ball if we needed it but we thought we would leave it for someone who actually wanted it. (Only took another 5 mins before someone else took the bucket!)

No fishing, Joel decided to shave his head and I thought it was funny when I saw his little mirror he had hanging off the caravan door so he could see what he was doing. (Reminded me of MASH tv show for some reason when they used tiny little mirrors to shave in the army) That's the kind of tough things out here haha, no full length mirrors for us!

We had to do a "dump" run in town and decided to pick up some supplies for our next adventure so we didn't have to worry when we got there.

We are trying the bulk meat idea this week to see if that saves us anymore money! (So the cryvac machine got a workout today) There is a local butcher in Moruya so we got a pack from them, we also picked up some cheap tarps as if it is still rainy and we have to pack up when things are wet we can put these over our mattresses so our sheets etc do not get wet!

Another interesting thing about Moruya is that all along the Main Street of the town is these "pole carvings with meaning" that were apparently done by the one artist but were paid for by all different clubs, associations etc. They are pretty cool and I think there must be about 12 or more in total. We just had a look at a few of them and each one has a meaning behind it and tells the story on the carving.

We then headed back to camp to start cooking dinner! You see yesterday we lit a fire to cook our roast and a big storm came and we ended up having toasted sandwiches for dinner so today we were determined to make sure we got in before the afternoon storm came!

While dinner was cooking we decided that we might do some washing. We bought a big drum a little while ago for bush washing but hadn't actually used it yet..... Our plan is to put all the clothes in with some washing liquid and tomorrow leave the drum in the van so it can slosh around (like a washing machine) and then when we get to our destination we can take it out and rinse. Will tell ya how this goes!

Packing up a bit this arvo to prepare for tomorrow, we were originally going to head for Mallacoota in Vic but we have decided to go to Mount Kosciusko National Park. This is mainly because we were planning to go to the Alpine NP but because of the bush fires we can't go there so this is the next best thing.

Carly & Joel

 

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