Soni and Mick kindly put us up in Canberra as the temperature dropped to a record January low of 1.6 degrees and the snow fell on the mountains! Luckily the next morning the sun was back out and we all headed to Questacon Science museum for kids where the girls even attended their first lecture on Water! Great fun and from there we headed to the very moving Australian war memorial with its impressive view down Anzac Parade to Parliament House. We later went up Mount Ainsley to get some great views of the city and as Holly started to fall asleep we went to the Captain Cook fountain and then onto Gold Creek where Daisy fed the native parrots and birds!
Next Day we headed up into the snowy mountains along the Monaro Highway to stay in Australia’s highest caravan park in the Kosciuszko National Park, surrounded by snow capped mountains and cooler air we headed up the valley to look at Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko and took a walk to view the wild flowers, snow gums and the Snowy river itself. Returned to the camp site to find lots of friendly kangaroos which the girls loved playing with and feeding. Later on that night we had a visit from a number of brush tailed possums one of which must have mistaken Toms toe for a bit of apple!The next day we headed into the main ski resort in the area, Thredbo and took the ski lift to the top and walked the 4km return trip to the Mt Kosciuszko lookout for some more amazing views. Temperature at the top was a refreshing 8 degrees. Ended a great day round the camp fire with the girls eating jaffles for their dinner!
We left the Snowies driving through never ending open country along the Snowy Mountains Way, rejoining the Monaro Highway, before passing over the border into Victoria and arriving on the South Coast at Lakes Entrance. We took a late stroll over to ninety mile beach where the girls happily played in the sand having not seen the sea for over a week! Tom had started to feel unwell so we decided to stay a couple of night and relax before we headed north again along the Great Alpine Way to Bright through some serious skiing country. We passed Mt Hotham on the way and saw the Great Dividing Range again in all its glory. Bright was beautiful and the girls played in the river. Next day we headed south again and stopped at Glenrowen for lunch. This was the place of the last stand of Ned Kelly and his gang, famous Australian outlaw!
The big day then finally arrived, we were “going to Bonnie Doon”. For those of you that have not seen the Australian Movie “The Castle” then we suggest you try and get hold of a copy as the following few sentences probably won’t make any sense! Bonnie Doon, arh the serenity, in all honesty it was beautiful as Lake Eildon was a full capacity and there wasn’t then smell of 2 stroke anywhere. Tom had to dig a hole to get the caravan level before we took a trip out to 3491 Maintongoon Road, home of the Kerrigans. We thought, what would you want with a kit home, but it was complete with Mozzi zapper and power lines.
The serenity didn’t last long as the next morning we headed into Melbourne to stay with Jo’s Uncle and Aunt, Brian and Leah, and meet up with Jo’s parents. Tom went straight to the Doctors and then onto A&E to be diagnosed with Pneumonia. Luckily we are in Melbourne for a while and the antibiotics started to do their job straight away.
From Melbourne we have no schedule to keep and so not sure how much internet access we will have but we will continue to post as often as we can!
