Around The World In 80 Waves

Adam & Rossana suggested that I should check out the snowy mountains on my way south. It doesn’t take long after leaving Canberra before I am in the foothills and steadily climbing.

The road is quiet on my side but really busy going the other way with people coming down after having spent the weekend skiing and snow boarding. I am quite tempted by the idea of doing the same, but listening to the forecasts on the radio I can’t quite as excited by the additional 5cm of snow that has landed today on top of the existing 63cm. I am a tad more used to talking about such things in metres in Europe and North America.

There are signs to warn me about Kangaroos crossing the road and it isn’t long before I see why. There is roo’d kill everywhere.

I stopped to to take a snap of this one who looked like he might be having a kip, but I suspect he was slightly more than stunned!

I must have counted at least a dozen kangaroos and a handful of wombats too all getting a bit bloated in the sun. It was a bit grim.

However I didn’t create anything of my own and arrived at my target town of Cooma a couple of hours earlier than I had expected to. I have a long way to go in the van so decided to push on through the Great Dividing Range and cover some of the ground towards Adelaide.

I took the option of following the instructions given by my satellite navigation application on my phone and spent the next couple of hours climbing in the dusk being watched by scores of Kangaroos lounging around either side of the road.

At the point when there was snow on the ground everywhere I was instructed to turn left onto the Alpine Way. The roads were initially clear but conditions worsened by the minute and I ended up lost in the woods with the back end of the van being a bit frisky on the slippery road. When I eventually found a town I discovered I was in Cabramurra which is actually the highest town in Australia and about to be in the middle of a blizzard!

It transpires that the Alpine way is already blocked and only me could get so lost on a surf trip that I am the single furthest point from sea level on an entire continent! I manage to get some directions and have to get out of there quickly to avoid being stranded for days in the snow. (At this point I am thinking enviously a great deal about the heat wave going on at home in the UK)

The road down is just as slippery as it was on the way up, largely a single track road in the trees where all of a sudden you will come across bridges such as this one.

I am just getting below the snow line and starting to relax when I come around one bend to see a huge stag deer directly in front of me in the middle of the road.

I stamp on the brakes and am skidding all over the place. All the while the deer in the headlights is looking like a deer in the headlights and doesn’t move.

I eventually come to a halt alongside him, when he and his huge set of antlers are looking in through the drivers window.

I didn’t even know they had deer in Australia (they were introduced I later discover) and am more concerned with my heart rate to get a good picture, and he wanders off through the trees in the night as soon as I reach for my phone to try and snap him.

I’m still not out of the woods in more ways than one though and just as I am getting confident on the road again two of the local wild horses, known as brumbies, decide that they are also up for a game of chicken with me in the campervan.

Another swervy, skiddy stop later and I have managed to avoid notches in the steering wheel once more, and the horse stare at me before joining their mate the stag in the woods.

I do get out of the mountains and then push on a little further and eventually find somewhere to stop for the night where I will be able to answer the call of nature myself the following morning. An interesting night!