Day 1
The rain had come and I’d managed to relax throughout Christmas Day. Last minute decision to go, with nothing planned other than 1 night at Blowering Dam (near Tumut).
As such we took the Prado and the camper trailer. The run over was fairly quiet thankfully although I did notice a couple of things with the Prado. The camper trailer sits ‘down’ so I’ll have to flip the coupling to fix that, although I’m going to look into fitting polyairs or something similar for towing duties. It also likes a ‘drink’ when towing and driving through the mountains – thank god it’s on gas…..
On arrival to Blowering Dam I saw the worst damn thing – people! Everywhere they were the buggers!
So I continued driving through to our little secret camping spot near Talbingo. Problem was it isn’t as ‘secret’ as I thought it was, as there were 4 other families already there
We ended up dropping into the Yolde Campground and got a shock to find no-one there! Beauty
Not long after we started setting up Jason & Michelle with accompanying rug-rats rocked up. Kids were going everywhere so I vacated the trailer for some quiet ‘drink’ time.
Jason decided that the camping area wasn’t good enough for him, as he wanted a ‘water front view’ so he went and found a camping spot 5km’s up the road 😕
Funniest thing is the next day he had neighbours popping up everywhere around him down near the dam – so the peace and quiet as well as privacy got shattered 😆
I cooked up some sausages on the fire for dinner, and then after the kids were in bed the missus and I enjoyed a cold beverage by ourselves – to be honest it was good to relax and catch up as this year has been bloody hectic to say the least!
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Day 2
Slept in – the kids that is
Went though the normal ritual of breakfast, dressed etc etc and then contemplated what we were going to do with the day. So we wandered over to Jason and Michelle’s camp to say g’day
The boys had a quick game of footy whilst I organised to take everyone on a quick tour of the Talbingo area.
First stop was the dam wall/spillway:
Next stop was just up the road (opposite the Talbingo turn-off) to a creek that’s a bit of a favourite of mine:
We continued on and showed them the Tumut 3 power station and around town. Grabbed some supplies as I’d decided that I wasn’t ready to go home yet!
Heading back to camp we devoured lunch and had a few games of cards (pairs) before I started itching to play……
I’ve managed over the last couple of years to pretty much tackle most of the tracks around the area. However I’d never gone around the ‘other side’ of the dam – well the dam perimeter track anyway.
So that’s what we did…..
Unfortunately the track through to Tumut was closed, so we only got to do about 3/4 of the track before having to head up to the powerline track. Just gives me another reason to go back there
Coming back I dropped into Talbingo and got the kids an ice-cream and then headed down to the creek for a dip to cool down.
Funniest thing is the missus definately proved that the Prado is a chick’s car – she even hangs the washing on it!
Dinner was sausages and spaghetti – mainly to finish of the sausages that were left.
A couple more games of cards finished of the kids for the night, and a few quiet drinks around the fire finished me off!
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Day 3
Plan submitted and approved!
So we packed up camp and went and said our goodbyes to Jason and Michelle. On to Tumut to fuel up and stock up some supplies. Then onto the road we went again.
We turned off and headed off on our way to Brindabella Rd. The road is bitumen for approx 1/2 of the distance and then it turns to dirt. Be aware that it is sign-posted ‘not suitable for caravans’ – which I don’t class the trailer as.
We arrived in the Brindabella Valley approx lunch time so we turned in and had a quick scout for a good spot to stop. There were a few families camping along the river bank, but we were lucky enough to find a spot close to the bank – albeit without any shade.
A quick climb up the hill (well it is slow actually) and I was turning down into the National Park. I arrived at Flea Creek at 2pm and as I was waiting for a mate to turn up the kids and I decided to wait in the river!
Whitey rocked up in his Patrol and we made the decision to continue on down to McIntyre’s Hut. Now I will say for anyone contemplating this with a trailer – the Trak Shak that I’m using has electric brakes wired to the controller in the cab, as well as off-road tyres and independant suspension. The reason I mention this is the track’s bordering on ‘hard’ and in a couple of spots if you didn’t know what you were doing you’d be in a world of trouble – and that’s in the dry (I’m not joking about that part either).
We only passed a couple of other vehicles along the way and with Whitey out front it made it easy knowing if anyone was coming or not.
Setting up camp was becoming easier the more that we did it, and we had it down to just over 1/2 hour this time. Thoughts started going towards the weather as the wind picked up – I still wasn’t sure of the capabilities of the Prado – but I have to grudgingly admit that it is fairly capable
Dinner done, kids in bed and I was able to sit down and catch up properly with Whitey. Which was a bloody good thing as I’d missed his bucks night a week earlier due to fighting fires up north
All in all a really good day where I got to push the boundaries of the ‘new to us’ trailer and Prado. Both of which impressed me up to this stage – but it still had to get us back out of there and home
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Day 4
Well I’m sure that you’re all waiting for me to say that I broke something or we didn’t get out easily. Well in some ways you’d be right as I copped a rock in the spotlight which has cracked it top to bottom. And it did struggle in some area’s climbing back out – but first gear low and flicking it to petrol worked a treat. It did it easier than I thought. 😯
The drive out was uneventful, as was the refuel and lunch at Weston Creek. The decision had been made that I had to go home, so it was off to the highway and homewards bound.
Hence why no photos as the highway is boooooooring.
However I get to go away next Friday for 9 days this time! 😆