High Country, Log Fires and Meat Pies

10th September

Odometer: 1459 km

We have left the coast and traversed the Great Dividing Range to arrive in Snowy River Country. We are staying in a lovely AirBnB just outside Cooma, in what used to be the kitchen of the Historic 1841 Squatters Arms Staging Inn in the Bunyan township.

Cooma is the capital of the area, with its usual selection of supermarkets, with outdoor workgear shops, flannel shirts and ATV sellers. There is a small Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre. I enjoyed a quick visit and got a private viewing of a half hour documentary, learning more about this impressive expansive hydro electricity and irrigation project.

We had a couple of overcast and cold days, so we decided to sample the selection of pies on offer in Cooma, and then built a nice log fire in our room.

The weather turned back to sunny and blue skies today, and we headed off into Kosciuszko National Park, following the Alpine Way from the start at Jindabyne to Khancoban. The views were amazing and there was still some snow left at Dead Horse Gap at 1582 m altitude. It was distinctively chilly there at 9 degrees C, more than 10 degrees cooler than in the valley. There was a section of burned forest on the south side of the mountain from the 2020 fires, which was quite depressing. Thankfully, the majority of the park was green, in the middle of spring, with plenty of flora and fauna. We spotted kangaroos and deer.

The Alpine Way drive to Khancoban was lovely, driving on the NSW side of the Murray river, we have now been within a 100 metres of the border with Victoria… but to the best of our knowledge didn’t cross it. Watch out for my next post!!!!!

We had amazing burgers, with the lot (so beetroot and pineapple) in the little local cafe / grocery store in Khancoban. It was lovely to chat with the locals there. Khancoban turned out to be a lovely township, we hadn’t expected much. Another retirement location contender?