Jindabyne

For as long as we’ve been together, we have had weekends away , using specific things as an excuse – eg birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day. Now that we no longer work, our weekends away have become “short breaks”. This means we can celebrate on the actual day instead of going on the closest weekend, and we don’t have to battle the Friday afternoon “get out of Sydney” traffic. Bliss!

So for Valentine’s Day, we left home on the Sunday, and headed down south to Jindabyne. Les had found a self-contained place about 10km outside town, and got a good deal for staying 3 nights. That meant that we had to get the cat-sitter to call in to look after Maggie as we can’t really leave her alone for that long.

The accommodation was lovely, and right in the bush. This is the view from the lounge area.

So much in the bush, that we had visits from the local wildlife.

Wallabies.

This bat was one of two that got a bit confused. We were sitting in the lounge quietly watching TV when suddenly Joy noticed these creatures flying about the lounge, and thought they were birds that had somehow got inside. But it seems there is a colony of bats living in the roof. When they all started coming out just on sunset, two of them came out the gap between the ceiling and the flue of the fireplace. Once Joy realised they were bats, it became VERY important that Les get them outside! It was a bit of a challenge, but he managed it. After that, the tea-towel that he used became the designated bat-catching cloth, just in case they came back. (and we didn’t want to accidentally use it to dry the dishes.)

Deer.

We also saw a couple of rabbits, but they had an objection to having their photo taken.

Next day it was up to Charlotte Pass. We piked out and didn’t do the Summit Walk, but just the boardwalk. But we could see Mt Kosciuszko – can you pick it?

By then it was time for morning tea – at Spencers Creek, beside a lovely little pond.

We had heaps of time to fit in another couple of walks, so we headed off to the Rainbow Lake walk. It goes down to a man-made lake that was created as water supply for the Hotel Kosciuszko.

See how a lot of the trees are dead? We think it is because there were some pretty bad bushfires a few years ago, but we’ve sent an email to the National Parks to ask. Some parts of the park look pretty bad.

This is the jetty at the lake - I don’t think they use it anymore.

Lunch was at Sawpit Creek, and the intention was to do another walk after lunch – the Waterfall Walk. But the weather was very threatening, with big black fluffy clouds, so we decided Les would have to do without his dose of waterfalls for the day – he was very disappointed, but he didn’t want to get wet, either (wuss). At least he got photos of his second-favourite subject – dead trees.

It ended up a good decision to not do the walk, as there was a storm, including hail! (Les is not so much of a wuss after all!!)

On the Tuesday, we went for a drive down to Tom Groggin. The rest area there is quite pretty, and right on the Murray River.

Our walk for the day was at Dead Horse Gap, along the Thredbo River.

We started the walk just as a group was finishing the walk, and they had told us the walk was known for being bad for flies – a number of them had netting over their hats to protect them from the flies. Well, they were right. We basically cut our walk short because we couldn’t stand the flies anymore. It was a constant annoyance. Just taking a photo was a challenge, because the flies would be all over your face and hands, and flying in front of the camera. And don’t talk, or open your mouth, for danger of a fly going in. Aaaggghhh!

Lunch was at Thredbo, but again we headed home straight after lunch because of threatening weather. Strange – mornings lovely and sunny, storms in the afternoon – maybe we are in the tropics?

A lovely dinner that night for Valentine’s Day, with the fire going.

Weird that it wasn’t too hot to have the fire going, and it is February!

Wednesday dawned, and it was back on the road to home, the real world, and to see what damage Maggie had done to the house while we were away.