Monday 12^th January

Again the hills were shrouded in mist when we got up this morning. Having loaded the car we decided to drive up to Charlotte’s Pass at the head of the Perisher Valley and by the time we got there the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We walked for an hour or so, on the Summit track to Mount Kosciuszko (pronounced Kosi-osko), with some magnificent views before retracing our steps.

We walked about 8Km in all and the wild flowers were lovely. We then drove back to Canberra to John and Pen’s for a pleasant evening together.

Sunday 11^th January

After raining heavily again all last night the tops were all covered in mist so we decided to do another low level walk. We waited until about 10.30am when the rain had more or less stopped and went out to walk along Thredbo Valley track. This wound its way gently alongside the valley and crossed three suspension bridges. The river was very full with all the recent rains and the white water was extensive and quite spectacular in places.

The mist was down most of the time although the rain showers meant much upping and downing of umbrellas. After 6-7Km we decided to turn back as it was too wet to sit anywhere and eat our sandwiches, so we eventually had a very late lunch in the dry when we got home!

I managed to book an hour’s massage at 4.30pm which I enjoyed, before preparing dinner of pasta, sauce, meatballs and salad.

Saturday 10^th January

The rain continued throughout most of the night and this morning so we had a lie in and spent time reading. Once the rain had eased a bit late morning we decided to venture out and did the Riverside Walk which was nice and gentle. The walk paralleled the river and then circled up around Australia’s highest golf course before returning to Thredbo village.

The sun even came out a few times but we were glad of our umbrellas on occasion as mostly it was quite misty.

We had a very late snack for lunch as we had booked to have dinner at Knickerbocker which is a French inspired restaurant at the end of the village that had been recommended to us. The meal was excellent – I had an onion crème brulee with chicory leaves to start which was very good and then a whole smoked trout with salad which was absolutely delicious.

Friday 9^th January

We were on the road by 9.30am as we had decided to take an extended route to Thredbo through the mountains if the weather was okay. We stopped after an hour or so at Cooma and stocked up with food and drink for the next three days at the local Woolworths, before wending our way through the hills. The road was good but had lots of ups and downs and hairpin bends. The hills often seemed to be covered with the white skeletal trunks of dead trees which gave a rather strange landscape, presumably the results of previous extensive bush fires.

We had lunch in the highest town (village!) in Australia at some kind of a ski resort place. The waitress was very dour which we found quite amusing but the ‘steak sandwich with the lot’ was good. We thought ‘the lot’ applied to salad but it also included a slice of cheese, a piece of bacon and a fried egg!

We found our apartment in Thredbo which has designated parking spots underneath and has a small balcony. The views are lovely but the weather closed in during the evening (another hot and humid day) and we had another thunderstorm. Although the thunder and lightening weren’t as spectacular as previously, the rain came down in sheets.

Thursday 8^th January

Another enjoyably lazy morning at John and Pen’s while Holly (John’s daughter) and her two little girls (Tilley, 3+ and Bea, 14mths) came over for a while. Pen had a meeting in the morning but we picked her up at the University and drove up to the National Arboretum for lunch. Having visited the Bonsai exhibition we drove to the Telstra Tower and went up to the top viewing platform where we had some brilliant views of Canberra and its surrounds.

We then returned home to find that Pen’s mosquito zapper had arrived in the post so we sat outside in the evening and had dinner. Unfortunately we should have waited for some hours for the zapper to have exerted its effect because, although it attracted the surrounding mozzies, they decided to take a feed off us instead of being zapped! The weather had been hot and humid all day so there was a good thunderstorm and a torrential downpour in the evening whilst we sat under the covered verandah.