The man (and woman) from Snowy River...

What a day! We knew when we left Lakes Entrance that we were in for an great day in the Snowy Mountains, but just not how exciting it would be. As we started to rise on the secondary road we passed by the Buchan Caves, and a few waterfalls, on the way to our objective- the Snowy River, and a 120k off-road section of the Barry Way.

We were almost there when we stopped at Seldom Seen Service station for a coffee. What a place! Along the side of the hill were about thirty cars in various states of disrepair, the petrol pumps were decorated with items of scrap metals, a 'sculpture' of cycles decorated two trees, and a couple of cars were arranged as a smash- again as 'art'.

Perhaps we should not have been surprised to meet Bryan, the proprieter, a larger than life Blackpudlian with a beard which almost reached his waist. We ordered coffee with a little trepidation, seeing inside the "cafe", which was just as untidy and dirty as it was outside, hardly a place to sit down that wasn't covered with what appeared to be scrap or rubbish.
He asked where we were headed, and when we told him, he told us that the road was closed because of water damage, and suggested another route. So out came the maps, he suggested a route which would take us at least twice as long as our original one. By then it was too late to turn back- we had already gone about 100k up the road, so we decided to go on the new route, which involved around 120k off road. As we arrived at the junction where we were due to turn of our planned route there was no notice to tell us that the road ahead was closed. There we spotted a local farmer just about to mount his horse, we asked him about the state of our original route. He told us it had been closed, however he had seen cars coming through in the past couple of days, so it may have been reopened. We decided to take the chance.
Shortly after that we we allowed a car and caravan to pass us, and almost at the same place a car and trailer came the other way. We were more hopeful, but they were the last two vehicles we saw until we were almost back on tarmac!

We continued to rise through the mountains.  Around every bend- when we dared to look as the road was narrow, very twisty, and had a sheer drop to our right, were views to die for. Shortly we arrived at the river, and what a wonderful sight! In flood at the momant after recent rains, and the release of water from an upstream dam, the water was flowing swiftly, twisting and turning through the valleys.
As we approached the many blind corners we proceeded very gingerly, if another vehicle had come round the opposite way there was no room to pass and if he couldn't stop........
However we were lucky and it didn't happen.

At one point we came across a 'Road Closed' sign, the road had opened up in a 6 ft deep chasm, washed away by floods. It would have been impassable had the local authorities not worked to make a short bypass. Extremely narrow, and still a deep drop down and up again we were very careful as we passed.

After a dull day yesterday, the weather has changed to bright sunshine all day, it was so hot that we had to have the aircon on for the first time for a few weeks, hopefully the sun will follow us all the way to Brisbane.

We drove some 50k along the Snowy River, still along mountain sides most of the way, but occasionally came across bush camp sites, offering little more than a deep drop toilet and a fire ring, except for the amazing views of course! All the way we saw no other people, and very few animals either, just a few lizards. Oh- except for a couple of 'Brumbys', a wild mare and it's foal which were wandering across the road. There must be hundreds of these here, the horse manure on the road was everywhere.

We were almost at the end of the gravel- just about to move onto tarmac again, when we came across a young couple who had had an accident, she was driving,- I think too fast- and had hit a pothole, burst a tyre, carreered across the road, up the bank and into a tree. Thankfully they were not seriously injured, and along with a local resident we got them back on the road, although their car was not driveable. I'm glad we didn't meet them further up!

We are now in a place called Jindabyne, a town which could have been transplanted from the Alps,with it's wooden chalets and ski shops, quite lovely. We'll have a couple of days here, and report later. In the meantime, a few more pictures for you.