NOW – The NSW Snowy Mountains
After our shortest days travel of 16 kilometres coming down from the Davies Plain Hut we crossed the Murray River on a stony crossing with the water at the middle of our wheels. I imagine the water will be much deeper at the end of winter when the snow starts to melt. This is where the Murray starts high up in the mountains near Tom Groggin and enters the sea at Goolwa in South Australia. We threw some lures at a trout but all we caught was a stick. Some serious fishermen with all the gear were also after trout. We could see the fish rising at dusk but didn’t see any caught.
Where the Murray starts
The resident kangaroos came to graze on the grass flats of Tom Groggin each afternoon. They appeared to be quite relaxed and used to campers sharing their space. We were less relaxed when we realised we’d just about run out of brake pads, on Friday afternoon of course, leaving us without transport. Our premium NRMA Roadside cover ensured we got to Jindabyne, a night in a spa suite motel room and a rental car while we organised new brakes!
Relaxed locals came to visit.
With our car out of action we used our legs instead and rode the chairlift from Thredbo to the Eagles Nest for the walk to the top of Mt Kosciuszko. The temperature was minus 3 degrees and the wind was howling. We certainly didn’t get hot as we made our way along the 7km grated track to the summit of Australia passing glacial lakes and a brumby grazing nearby.
Halfway to Kosciuszko, Mountain brumby right next to the trail.
I have a reputation for going to lookouts in the fog and when we reached the summit of Mt Kosciuszko the clouds rolled in over us and the view. Just as well we’d been looking around as we walked along!
The top of MT Kosciuszko as the fog rolls in.
After a rest day at Tom Groggin with a roast dinner on the fire we travelled down the mountains through Khancoban to Tumut. We toured the Murray 1 Powerstation which uses water from the Snowy Mountains to provide electricity to NSW. The turbines, pipes and buildings all dwarfed our car and Tvan. While we had a coffee overlooking the river a huge trout surfaced just to let us know they really are there!
Murray 1 Power station dwarfs us.
NEXT: Through the Riverina and Across the Plains.
On the Emu Track
Cheryl and David.
