Monday 9 October 2017

ADVENTURES -- PART ONE.

On Tuesday morning (26th Sept), we headed from home towards Canberra, to help with child minding during the school holidays.  As we were not taking the caravan, we decided to take some back roads as a change to travelling up the Hume Freeway.
Off through the Yarra Ranges and Valley & into Albury on the Murray River, which is the state border between Victoria and New South Wales.  Here we stayed the night & headed off next morning, hubby having made a plan to turn off the freeway & up the Snowy Mountains Highway over the Alps to Canberra.  We'd not travelled this road for many years.  First we made for Adelong, then onto Tumut, an area we knew well having lived in Batlow for about 6 1/2 years back in the early eighties.

The freeway heading out of Albury.

Fields of Canola dotted the countryside. (rapeseed in UK).

The "new" to us bridge over Adelong Creek with the pub in the background.
Hills in the distance between Adelong & Tumut.
Once we arrived in Tumut, we stopped for a cup of tea & amenities at the old railway station.  The trains no longer run in this area, but they have preserved some of the interesting pieces from days of steam travel.

    The station buildings and platform, now form part of an information centre, which wasn't open on this day.
If you click on this you can read some of the info, which is part of the interesting snippets about the days of steam.

Part of where those foot warmers were placed to be heated.
From Tumut we travelled up into the mountains, where we passed Blowering Dam, somewhere we picnicked when the children were young, though over the other side to where I took these photos.

Blowering Dam with forested hills in the background.
As we climbed higher, we stopped at Perry's Lookout, where I snapped a couple of photos.

Mountains as far as the eye can see.
Leaving the lookout, we passed through this type of scenery till we were even higher still and above the tree line.

Not many trees up here, but we do have a sign for brumbies, which we never see, but.................
today we were in luck.  Not the best photo due to roadworks we were passing through at the time & couldn't stop,.
There were actually 3 of them & beautiful they were too.
An old deserted hut in the distance.

Still a little snow laying around.  It was on the side of the road too, but our windscreen was so bug splatted, those photos aren't fit to post.
Finally we came to Adaminaby where we had the most amazing salad sandwiches, loaded with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot, cheese & sprouts & for K, ham too.  This small town in the mountains is the stopping off point for cross country skiers & trout fishing on Lake Eucumbene, which was formed as part of the Snowy Mountains scheme to generate hydro-electricity & irragation.

The Big Trout.
We do have many "BIG" things here in Oz.
I've seen quite a few in times past & should find some old photos & do a post of them.

A snow plough on the right, to clear roads in winter & the sign for the Snowy Mountains Scheme Museum, somewhere we should think about visiting some day.
I didn't take anymore photos till after we reached Canberra, so that post will come during the week & one to follow later about our trip home, which was even more adventurous than this. 
Hope you have enjoyed coming along & although this is supposed to be a -quilting- blog, it is a diary of our life too, which has changed substantially since hubby gave up work & we are now officially retirees.
Enjoy the week all and take care.
Susan.




12 comments:

  1. I took photos of many 'giant' items when I had a holiday in Oz, including a giant golden wellington boot and a huge ram with enormous 'bits'!!! What a lovely trip you had.

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    1. Thank you C. Do you remember if the ram was in Goulburn? I've seen the banana, lobster, rocking horse & a sheep (maybe the one), but it's quite fun finding them.

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  2. Lovely photos. It's nice to take the back roads and see the scenery which is often missed when you travel on motorways.

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    1. Thanks Jo. Yes, it's great, rather than the same old, that comes with freeway travel. I've more fun in another post with much scarier roads?????

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  3. Did you go to that creepy museum/shop in Adelong with the stuffed animals and piles of animal furs on the floor?

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    1. NO! I don't even know about that shop/museum & to think we lived just up the road for 6.5 years. Now you have me intrigued.

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  4. Lovely photos, so many of them remind me of when we used to drive from Mpumalanga up through the Sabie Hills towards Johannesburg. Going over the Long Tom Pass between Sabie and Lydenburg. Named Long Tom after the huge guns used during the Boer war. Looking forward to your next installment :)

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    1. Thank you. Do you think Kate, that it's the southern hemisphere which has similar scenery, that it reminds you of South Africa. Love some of the quirky names you had over there too.

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  5. That looks wonderful and it is so lovely to see some blue sky for a change. Apparently the sky above me is also blue, but there is usually loads of cloudy stuff preventing me from getting a decent look!

    I’m probably being thick, but why would you not take the caravan this way? Is it because there wouldn’t be any sites (and I know your caravan doesn’t have all the facilities that UK ones take for granted) or is it too long a journey, or not a nice road to tow on? Perhaps you need a nice little campervan to complement your caravan! (Sorry ...... giggling childishly!!)

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    1. It's pretty awesome in places Jayne & that way is OK for caravan, but we were staying with DS2 so didn't need the van, but the way we came home is gravel, narrow, steep, winding & used by log trucks, so better not to tow, though if careful you probably could. We did have a camper-trailer once, but like having a bigger van with more room now. Pulling the van can also be heavy on petrol, so that is another factor on those roads. Thanks, glad you enjoyed.

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  6. Such a beautiful country! Miss it.. and you...! xx

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  7. Enjoyed your photo’s Susan

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