BUSH OUTINGS

NEW SOUTH WALES  

Snowy Mountains Trip With 

The Subaru Club Of Queensland

11 - 17 August 2002

As soon as Beth heard there was a snow trip on with our Queensland 4WD club, we were in. She is one of those unusual people who revel in the cold white stuff – and living in Canberra it’s just as well. An added bonus for us was also being able to catch up with a couple of old friends from the club and meet some new ones that have joined since we moved down south – and they were travelling to us – what a deal.

We arranged to meet the gang about 20 minutes south of our home on the road to Cooma. A few minutes of reunion at the rendezvous and we were off to main base at the MacPhie sheep and cattle farm near Lake Eucumbene – not far from Jindabyne. If anyone caught the Australia By Numbers program on SBS in July, they would have seen manager, Ian MacPhie, the main interviewee in a story about the relocation of Adaminaby township when the valley - now known as Lake Eucumbene - was flooded as part of the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric scheme. Ian’s farm (then owned by his parents) lost 1300 acres of prime grazing land to the lake and his house was relocated to a new position high above the deluge. The majority of us were to be accommodated in shearer’s quarters on the property, while one family opted instead to camp out at a favourite spot of theirs at Island Bend on the Snowy River near Guthega – brrrr. However, we also had our camping gear with us and intended to join them in the snow for a couple of nights later in the week.

We were met on arrival at the farm by Ian. The land was dry but the sky was threatening and an icy wind was building. Ian, oblivious to the penetrating cold, chatted to us for about half an hour before we eventually retreated to the comparative warmth of the quarters. Actually, I think it was colder inside than out. The quarters were very basic but adequate – adding to camaraderie and charm of the location. The rooms were kitted out with small fan heaters and electric blankets; the kitchen and adjoining common room serviced by a very old and dilapidated wood fired oven. It smoked the house out regularly. 

    Arrival at the shearer's quarters

After a short period of settling-in, Ian came over and stayed with us for over an hour, telling us the story of Adaminaby. A fascinating story and a fascinating man. As personable in the flesh as he came across on screen.

Ian tells Dave about Adaminaby      

Soon the temperature dropped dramatically and it began to rain – we hoped for it to snow but that looked unlikely. A couple of us took the precaution of loading up with Rum – a medical precaution, just in case it got really cold. Well, that trick worked. As we awoke in the morning to hear those frozen brass things fall off the Monkey, we were also greeted with snow covered cars and a white landscape – and even lightly falling snow – a good omen and an incentive to shovel down some breakfast and hit the road.

Morning Snow

That morning we had a relatively loose agenda of meeting up with the happy campers and seeing what the Snowy’s had to offer. A few kilometers down track though it became apparent that this was not going to be an ordinary day. We drove through intermittent snow showers enroute to the rendezvous and snow clouds menaced the mountain tops where we were headed. For two wheel drives, chains were the order of the day; for four wheel drives, engagement and care – especially as we took the snow covered turn toward Guthega and the equally snow covered Island Bend camp. The campers had an interesting night amid the cold wind and snow showers that, at times,  drove them into the comparative comfort of their car.

Island Bend car park                                                          The road to Guthega

At the camp we oohed and aahed for a while, taking happy snaps of cars lined up in the snow, then we headed off to a nearby Power Station and then Guthega township – snow all the way. By the time we got to Guthega, weather conditions had worsened. With wind driving the snow sideways we had morning tea inside the visitor’s center, only to find another 15 cm of snow outside when we emerged. We attempted to drive further on uphill but David’s mighty Forester bogged down in a snowdrift so we decided it prudent to back track and head to Perisher. That’s where things got very interesting. And Auto John took interesting to the extreme when putting the Outback sideways over ice on rejoining the main road – and again, snow plowing the side of the road after stopping to de-ice the windscreen.

By the time we reached Perisher, we were in blizzard conditions – serious wind and snow. No skiing today. In fact finding the car park, let alone the visitor’s center, where we decided to have lunch, was a challenge. And it was around this time that I managed to cop one of those good old fashioned embarrassing fines when a stranded motorist asked me to jump start his car (lights on – dead battery). I manoeuvered our shiny new Patrol to the front of his car only to discover my bonnet failed to respond to the lever. A quick look disclosed the bonnet to be welded to the grille with a sheet of ice. Half a jerry can of water (about half a degree warmer than the ice) failed to melt it. Eventually I summoned David who came to the rescue with his car (while I dashed off for lunch – no point all of us freezing). It wasn’t until investigating the problem back in Jindabyne later that day that I discovered when pulling the “alleged” bonnet lever, the fuel door popped open. Oops, red face – must read the owners manual. Not surprisingly, the bonnet opened on command of the correct lever.

 Well it snowed in Jindabyne that day – a rare occurrence. On the way back to quarters, Lakes Jindabyne and Eucumbene were both surrounded by snow to the water’s edge – very picturesque. We did a quick sortie down to Lake Eucumbene at the farm and then settled in for a little more precautionary rum – purely medicinal, of course. That night it got very cold – so cold that shaped blocks of snow that fell out of the tread of our boots and onto the wooden floor were still shaped and frozen next morning. Beth and I found out later in the week that it was more comfortable camping out in a tent in the snow where the temperature was relatively even, than to continually dash between cold and warm rooms at the shearer’s quarters.

Tuesday dawned, disclosing pretty reasonable weather, so we headed off to to rendezvous with our friends and head to Perisher. Road conditions were good today - just the occasional snow patch across the road until we got quite close to the mountain top. Nevertheless, along the way we did spot a couple of cars off the side that seemed to have come unstuck on clean and dry sections of the road that morning. One was a Volvo (no surprises there - the driver probably had his hat on too tight) and the other a Landrover Discovery that had stopped precariously close to a power pole - so much for traction control. Perisher looked totally different today bathed in sunlight. Even the car park looked different - although vehicles in the long-term car parks were still locked in by piles of snow. 

We fooled around in the snow for a while while our friends had a dabble on cross-country skis. It looked like so much fun that Beth and I went and rented some ourselves and joined them for our first attempt at doing one of the marked cross country circuits. As they pressed ahead, Beth and I tripped, stumbled and fell our way around the first part of the course. I started getting pretty reasonable balance (albeit with the occasional spectacular crash) but unfortunately Beth took one fall too many and had to hobble back to the Nordic Hut with knee and ankle injuries. After escorting her back most of the way I returned to the circuit but by then fatigue had affected my technique and the afternoon sun had turned the surface to ice, so my spectacular crashes became more frequent. An earlier start in the day next time. 

After returning our skis, Beth and I headed to Island Bend to set up camp with some of the others.

By the time we arrived at the campsite, it was starting to get dark and the temperature was starting to fall out of the sky. David, John and Justin helped us clear snow away for the tent and we set it up - a bit slower than usual due to the cumbersome extra clothing we were wearing. Beth then cooked up dinner and we joined the others around a roaring camp fire (suitably rugged up of course), chatting until late into the night. And despite the temperature dropping into serious minus figures overnight (with the Camelback freezing and our breath condensing as ice on top of our double layered sleeping bag), we were as warm as toast.

Next morning we escorted the others to Guthega Power Station to see them off on a cross country ski and overnight camp at one of the mountain huts. I wished to be going with them but didn't have the necessary gear. They had a good trip, culminating in having to snow shovel their way into Horse Camp Hut but had the place to themselves overnight - complete with pot belly stove.

Meanwhile, Beth and I went back up to Guthega to view it in bright sunlight and then drove through Thredbo and down Alpine Way to the picnic area at Tom Groggin to have lunch with the Kangaroos. The sky was clear blue and the road clear, however, still a little wet in the shadows of the snow gums on the Western side of the range. It would have been perilously icy earlier in the morning I'm sure. After that we had a leisurely drive back to camp and set up for an early dinner, a drink by the campfire and an early night - the others all being out at Horse Camp Hut.

That night it got hugely cold - minus 8C for sure but probably lower - and let me tell you - red wine at that kind of room temperature just isn't right. Still, we were again toasty warm in our double sleeping bag. We know it was seriously cold as our jerry can of water inside the car had begun to freeze quite solidly and the digital camera refused to work until thawed out. Cooking breakfast was a slow process, bringing everything back through zero and into plus figures before cooking could even begin. As we intended to decamp that day, we had a very leisurely breakfast and sponge bath while all our gear was laid out in the sunshine to dry out. Around midday or so, our friends returned from their cross country skiing jaunt, and while they did their own defrosting, we headed back through Jindabyne to the shearing quarters. That night Beth and I did feel the cold as the others that had stayed on the farm had the common room quite hot and dashing from a very warm room to very cold rooms didn't help acclimatisation at all.

As Friday dawned, Beth and I loaded up the car as we would be heading home after a final day's outing with the others. We then headed off for a driving circuit through Thredbo, Tom Groggin and back through Cabramurra, Australia's highest town. The snow topped mountains looked spectacular from the western side of the range as we took morning tea at Tom Groggin, and there was still plenty of snow for some of the others to go cross country skiing after lunch at Cabramurra. 

As we headed back through Adaminaby late in the day, Beth and I made a snap decision to stay another night with the gang at the farm. So as the others refuelled, we topped up our supplies of Bundy rum - just for medicinal purposes, you understand. Thereafter, we revelled in a bit of camaraderie back at the farm and a little "last night madness".

Our final trip of the week was to lead the group back to Canberra through our local stomping ground, Namadgi National Park. Making an early start, it was a spectacular journey as we drove through the occasional bank of fog under clear blue skies. The kangaroos were still out in Namadgi and there was hardly another car on the road. A fitting end to a great week.

Back in Canberra, we hosted our friends for morning tea at home and then escorted them through the suburbs and on their way north to Brisbane via Barrington Tops National Park - lucky buggers.