Cabin in the Woods

13 September

Odometer: 1708 km

I am writing this sitting in an old woodshed, hot spotting the laptop to my phone. We are staying in a cabin in the middle of the forest, no wifi, no phone reception, just the occasional kangaroo or wallaby. We stocked up on Friday with groceries for three days and some nice wine and G&T, prior to heading “off grid”.

First a nice picnic lunch (bread, cheese and meats) at Dead Horse Gap in Kosciuszko NP, and a quick detour to see Perisher, prior to heading down Barry Way. We had been warned about an Australian Defence Force & Police border checkpoint at the end of the tarmac road section. This road continues into Victoria, and as you all know, our state borders are still firmly shut because of the pandemic. We had to explain that we were heading just a bit further down the road, but not as far as Victoria, and were let through. It will be interesting coming back…

Our accomodation is an amazing stone cabin in the middle of the woods. No curtains, our view is of trees, the amazing night sky with shooting stars and wallabies.

We went on a full day trail ride yesterday. This was a 5 1/2 hour quite technical ride. There were twelve riders of variable skills and two guides. After getting booted and hatted, safety first, we were matched to our horses based on ability, height and weight. I was paired with Chillie, a feisty ex-pony club pony, Mike got Brewster, a tall Bay ex-racing gelding. It was great riding through the forest, along and through creeks, and up and down (at times quite steep) hills. Yes, we got a chance to channel our inner “Man from Snowy River” at one of the steepest descents. One of the highlights was definitely seeing a small herd of Brumbies with a one week old black foal (look careful at the feature photo). Amazing experience!

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• Best coffee: yikes…. no coffee at all!
• Accomodation: 1 BR cottage at Snowy Wilderness, Ingebirah
• Tip: full day trail ride at Snowy Wilderness, absolutely the best horse riding in Australia, $360 pp, includes a simple packed lunch. Note, there are also 2 and 3 hour rides available, as well as multi day trail rides!