The Snowy Mountains – day 1

After leaving Sally on Monday we knew we wanted to travel East to the Snowy Mountains. We followed the GPS compass eastward and took as many back roads as we could. We drove to places like Savernake, Coreen, Walbundrie, almost to Calcairn and to Mountain Creek.
We found the town of Holbrook to eat our lunch. Holbrook’s first building were erected in 1836 after explorers Hume and Hovell travelled through in 1824. It was known as ‘Germanton’, as the local innkeeper was a German. The community feeling during WWI prompted them to lobby for the town’s name to be changed. In 1915 the town was renamed ‘Holbrook’ after a decorated submarine captain Lt.Norman Douglas Holbrook who visited the town several times. After Holbrook’s death in 1976 his widow made a large donation to set up a memorial park in the town where the kids got to find out about submarines. ^{(Info from Wikipedia)}

The decommissioned HMAS Otway, also on display at Holbrook

After Holbrook, we drove North to Gundagai. Since my childhood I have heard bits of ‘The Road to Gundagai’ and as the town was so close by I wanted to take a look.

“There's a track winding back

to an old-fashioned shack,

Along the road to Gundagai.

Where the gum trees are growin'

and the Murrumbidgee's flowin'

beneath the starry sky.

Oh my mother and daddy are waitin' for me

And the pals of my childhood once more I will see

And no more will I roam 'cos I'm headin' right for home

Along the road to Gundagai.” written by J O’Hagan 1924, source: Wikipedia

Another first to me was seeing the huge fuel station we filled up at. We were bowser 21 and there were large step ladders for truckies to climb up and clean their windscreens.
We then drove south to Tumut, the start of the Snowy Mountains, and found ‘The Pines’ campsite, a free camp next to a massive lake at the base of some mountains. It was absolutely freezing at night (unpowered free site with long drop toilets) but the views across the lake, especially in the morning, made it all worthwhile.


As always, the photo doesn’t do the landscape justice – you’ll just have to believe me, it was simply beautiful!!