Snowy Mountains and Wilson's Promontory

After my one afternoon and evening in Canberra, on Wednesday I drove on to Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. I arrived mid morning and shortly I was in the National Park walking in the mountains. The weather was windy, cool but dry. I set off on a walk and soon bumped into another walker called Paul and his wife Patricia. Paul was a very nice retired bloke from Sydney who visited the mountains regularly for family skiing holidays. He shared with me lots of knowledge of the mountains which was really interesting. He was something of a mystery as he kept his face well hidden under a hat, sunglasses and nose guard. I fear he had some disfiguring illness but I felt it inappropriate to ask him about this.

After we completed this walk I drove on a few kms to Charlotte's Pass and took a short but steep walk down to the Snowy river. From the pass, when the clouds allowed, it was possible to see Mount Kosciuszko, 2228m, the highest mountain in Australia. The ten highest mountains of Australia are within 6 kms of each other. Apparently it can snow on any day of the year and in the summer months tourists frequently get caught out when walking in these mountains.

After another walk to a waterfall in the afternoon, just before dusk I was making myself a cup of tea on my camping stove in a picnic area . Suddenly I noticed a group of about 8 kangaroos had quietly joined me in the picnic area. For the first time I saw a young Joey hanging from its mother's pouch, as its mother was grazing the Joey also grazed the grass without getting out of the pouch. A great moment. Sadly I couldn't get a good picture of it in the fading light.

On Thursday I was mostly driving. I drove about 570kms into the State of Victoria to get to a town called Foster which is South East of Melbourne and close to Wilson's Promontory National Park, the most southerly point in Australia. You may have heard that Australia is suffering from a serious drought affecting agriculture and they are taking drastic measures to conserve water. However my experience of the last week , from Byron Bay to Melbourne makes me think I am solving the problem as I seem to find rain every other day. I may apply for a government grant before I leave

Fully intending to use my tent as I arrived in Foster there were storm warnings issued on the radio and black clouds overhead. I enquired after more substantial accommodation and was offered a cabin (shed with TV) for a few dollars more which seemed a good idea. Before I'd had time to cross the campsite the rain was ricocheting off the ground. I knew I had taken the right decision.

Thankfully next day although it was cooler and cloudy, the strong winds were keeping the rain at bay. If drove the 40+kms to the Wilson's Promontory National Park On the way to the walk starting point I saw my first wild wombat. I was surprised how large they are. Roughly the size of a badger but more like bear walking on all fours.

I had some good walks which included walking up two mountains for some great views, a forest walk , where I managed to startle (unintentionally) a kangaroo and, a finally beach walk. I was pretty tired after all this and fell asleep listening to the radio before leaving the car park.

Next day I drove to Melbourne, my final destination in Australia before I fly to New Zealand next Wednesday afternoon. More of Melbourne later.