Day 82 Jindabyne to Phillip Island

It was very early when Lisa and I woke this morning.  Truth be told, it had rained most of the night, and the wind was howling, so sleep was hard to come by anyway.  Being a travelling day, we set about packing up the van, and getting ourselves organised to get on the road. 

We were pretty efficient this morning, leaving the park at 0800.  All of the accumulated snow from the previous day had melted, and we settled in for a fairly big day's drive.  The first 60km to Cooma were uneventful, but as we drove further into the Great Dividing Range, the snow cover started to build again. 

Whilst it is pretty to look at, the further we went the more snow there was, including a nice slushy covering over the road.

Whilst passing through some of the towns, it was amazing to see the snow accumulating on the roofs of buildings, and piled up along the sides of the road.


I know this is not a big deal to my Northern Hemisphere friends, but it is pretty rare to find snow anywhere but high in the mountains in Australia, so we were living a treat of mother nature.


Lisa and I were so busy taking in the scenery, that we missed the turnoff for the Monaro Highway, and drove 6km before we found a spot where we could turn the van.

This was not the most ideal spot in the world to do a 3 point turn exercise with a 6m dual axle caravan in tow, but we had little choice in the matter. 

I managed this manoeuvre without bogging the Prado or the van, and annoying only one other driver in the process, but he had Victorian plates, and I should have known better than to turn on his piece of road.

As we were driving towards the coast, the snow began thinning out and we stopped so the kids could have one last go at making a snow man.  Fortunately the snow was wet enough to be sticky here in Bombala.  The kids and Lisa had a ball rolling up their snowballs to make snow men.  I had the good common sense to keep my gloves dry and take pictures of everyone freezing and wet.

They had a lot of fun in the process though.

At least they can say they got to build their own real snowmen.

Lisa made a snow pony for Emma which has been her desire since getting to the snow...If you use your imagination, you can see the pony...maybe cross your eyes and look again... 

But seriously, they all did an awesome job, and too soon we were warm in the car and on our way again towards Lakes Entrance.

The only other major feature on our drive this morning was the border crossing into Victoria, making it 4 states and 2 territories that we have driven through so far.

I mentioned Lakes Entrance which was to be our destination today, but an early start this morning and a long couple of weeks gone had us thinking about our itinerary and how to free up some time to relax (hopefully) before having to cross the Nullarbour and return to our lives. 

Being that Lakes Entrance is a Summer holiday resort, much like Busselton or Margaret River, we stopped only for a cursory look around, and then kept driving.  We were aiming for Phillip Island, and changed our plans for our stay in Melbourne to suit. 

This means we have 2 free days in Melbourne with no plans other than pure relaxation.

We didn't arrive at Phillip Island until after sunset, so for the second time this trip we were to get the caravan parked and set up in the dark.  I think we have gotten pretty good at this though, and we were all settled in, in no time at all. 

With the kids fed, Lisa and I lounged about with our books until she fell asleep.  I have just been sitting watching the jumpers on AFL.com dance around the screen telling me that the Eagles have won a game finally...but only just.  Pretty happy about that though.  Maybe one more rum before bed then.