Grey Nomads

Posts Tagged ‘Ben Boyd National Park’

If you have been watching our map lately, as we daisy chain around this country, it may appear to some to resemble a snail trail on the garden path. We do generally have a long-term big plan to which we adhere. We had to be in Melbourne by October 2008 to meet hubby’s brother and sister-in-law. We had to be in Darwin in May 2009 to catch our flight to the UK and now we have to be in Melbourne by late April 2010 for the imminent arrival of our first grandbaby. But we seldom have a short-term plan, set in stone, as to where we will be much beyond the next day. If the weather is fine and the view is agreeable we may hang around one particularly pleasant spot for a few days. If there is a better view to be had by travelling the long way round from point A to point B, then you will find us there.

As it had been well over 25 years since we had last visited the Kosciuszko National Park we decided to head there after leaving Canberra. Kosciuszko National Park is one of the world’s great national parks, and the largest in New South Wales. Covering 690,000 hectares, the park contains the highest mountain on mainland Australia, the famous Snowy River and all NSW ski fields and is nationally and internationally recognised as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

We spent almost a week discovering the beauty of the north end of the park. In the park are some delightful camping areas. At Yarragobilly we discovered one such campsite near the historic Cotterill’s Cottage, beside a babbling brook and stayed three nights. During the day we traversed several four-wheel drive tracks through beautiful, alpine landscape.

We trekked to the Blue Waterholes, shimmying across sheer rock faces and doing a delicate balancing act as we trod carefully over slippery stepping stones before discovering the easiest way to ford the shallow creek beds was to throw caution to the wind and simple step into the icy water.

The original plan was to travel through the northern end of the park, up along the east side of the Blowering Reservoir to Tumut then turn south along the West side of Blowering before entering the southern end of the National Park.

But as the old Yiddisch saying goes: “Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht.” (translation: “Man plans, God laughs.”) And so it was that we arrived in Tumut only to be advised that this road into the south end of the park was unsuitable for caravans. Due to this we headed north to Gundagai, then back east to the coast via Goulburn and Moss Vale.

This is was not the first time that we have been thwarted in our efforts to traverse this continent with our current rig, but an optimist is someone who can enjoy the view on a detour. It did give us the time to really enjoy the south coast of New South Wales and it give us a good excuse to drop in on my old mate Helen, her husband Gerard and their tribe of delightful off-spring, most of whom are now quite grown up.

The last time we saw Helen and Gerry, 20 something years ago, they had produced just two kids, now there are five. They visited us on our farm in Maryvale soon after we had moved there from Bronte. Though time has dulled my memory somewhat, I do recall through the fog, that it was a very joyful time we spent together and I also remember, but would rather forget, a rather appalling hangover as a result. It did teach me, however, that I suffer from an allergy to champagne; it makes me believe that I can sing and dance, and there was that rumour of having danced the ‘Hora’ to the strains of “Hava Nagila” on the bar of the Maryvale Pub….but more about that another time.

As we have been known to do, we brought with us some drought breaking rains, much to the delight of the inhabitants of Narooma. See my previous blog “rain maker - drought breaker”

We had managed to out run the rain for a few days but they eventually caught up with us again just as we arrived in Eden at the Southern part of the Ben Boyd National Park, a place of great natural beauty - evidently, but not as spectacular through rain splattered glasses. As the rain created rivulets, the colour of Café au Lait, beside and across the badly corrugated roadside, we decided to make good our escape before we got bogged in completely. After perusing the Bureau of Meteorology web site we changed our plans again and headed for the hills. The rain had, by now, brought fresh green shoots to the drought-starved fields between Bombala and Cooma and covered them in what looked like a coat of green corduroy.

So here we are back in Cooma again at the gateway to the Kosciuszko National Park. It has taken us almost four weeks to travel from Canberra to this point and upon consulting my map was appalled to discover that we had managed to cover, as the crow flies, just a tad over 80km. As for the route we travelled; it was well over 500km up hill and down yonder dale dragging our 3 tonne caravan behind us, for a large percentage of the time barely getting out of first gear, much to the consternation of the poor sods travelling behind us. This has caused us to long deliberate whether or not to replace this rig with something more suitable…but what? There is not one perfect method to travel around Australia. Since embarking upon this trip we have seen them all. From the million dollar Winnebago to the light weight camper-trailers that unfurl like the pop-up nursery books of old.

We have considered our options, and they are numerous. We considered a 4×4 truck with slide on camper and dirt bike strapped to the boot. However a great idea struck me while we were camped alone on acres of land by the banks of the much-depleted Blowering Reservoir. As I float in the reservoir on my foam noodle (not that, with my body mass index, I require much assistance to float.) a nearby kangaroo perplexed by the sight as if he had spotted the Loch Ness Monster. I was watching a dragonfly hovering above me when the proverbial light bulb suddenly illuminated the speech bubble above my head. A helicopter; that is what we need. Of course it would have some drawbacks. It’s hard enough to find parking at Woollies as it is. So I thought it might need to be something big enough to carry a small all terrain vehicle such as a Tomcar, for getting around town as well as driving across sand dunes. Also we would still need accommodation, so something big enough to fit out like a motorhome. We might need some thing the size of…oh; I don’t know…a Chinook perhaps.

Hmmm…didn’t I reading somewhere that the Australian Government has recently retired its fleet of Chinook Helicopters? What do you reckon a second hand Chinook is worth these days? How many kilometres per litre do those babies consume? Probably more like how many litres per kilometre? And does our GPS come with the option of aerial navigation?

Excuse me while I go jump onto Ebay. Now where should I start my search; “surplus military helicopter”, or “aviation hardware”?