The Snowy Mountains–day 2

OK, I survived the first cold night!!

We got moving fairly early and made our way to the town of ‘Adaminaby’ (try and say that one three times fast!!!). Adaminaby is famous for its ‘big trout’ and has a population of just over 200 people. We really liked the town – great little shops, playground and clean and comfortable public toilets. (Note: When camping with long drops, this last feature of the town is particularly important).
The mountains meant a picturesque drive for us. The impact of the 2003 bushfires that devastated Canberra is particularly evident up here. Apparently the fires resulted from over 70 lightning strikes – and burnt hundred of hectares on the mountain ranges. Even after eight years, regrowth is slow and the appearance of the dead trees is quite ghostly.
We encountered a friendly park ranger at one of the huts just past Adaminaby who happily answered our questions. These huts are scattered over the mountains and were built in the 19th century as a refuge to travellers caught in bad weather. People would hole themselves up in the huts, light a fire and wait out the fierce storms that would sometimes take several days to pass. Many of the huts burnt down in the above mentioned fires and have been faithfully reproduced – except this time with concrete floors!!
While driving along Harry made the classic comment of ‘I’m getting mountain sick…’ We saw that the road markings changed along the way where the white lines were replaced by yellow ones and the white reflector sticks at the road side were now red and doubled in height. The changes are obviously to make the road more visible when covered by white snow.




The afternoon light spilled through to create beautiful shadows on the mountains.


We continued our drive through to Jindabyne and stopped at the fantastic Visitors Centre. There was a photographic exhibition of Snowy Mountain riders and their horses as well as lots of historic pieces of local information. It was a great centre! Harry particularly liked  the touch screen which meant he could look up information about Bunbury.


We saw a lot of frost plains, where not much grows due to the cold and also the lack of light afforded by the mountains.


That night we found a campsite known as ‘Thredbo Diggings’. Again we had no power so after an ultra healthy tea of two minute noodles, I was in bed before 7pm. Trevor and the boys weren’t far behind me!