We slept in and didn’t depart until 0900h – was originally hoping to be on the road by 0700h. So much for plans. Either way once we got moving we quickly forgot about all of the stuff that doesn’t matter and started enjoying the drive.
We headed east and crossed the Hume Weir, heading towards the Wymah ferry. On previous trips we tended to run along the other side of the Weir, so we wanted to do the full length on this side for a change.
The road itself is quite good, albeit very windy. It is bitumen the whole way, but don’t let that deter you from a good drive. Making good time we slipped back into NSW at Jingellic for a quick break, and then it was across the river again to continue on.
Arriving at Tintaldra the weather report wasn’t very good, and there was a lot of talk of the road between Khancoban and Cabramurra being closed. So not wanting to take the risk (it was fast becoming 1100h) I turned north and took the gravel road across to Tooma and on to the start of Elliot Way.
Elliot Way never changes but that is a good thing in my opinion. It is a nice drive especially at this time of year, and today was no exception. I got quite a surprise right near the top of the climb, nearly cleaning up a couple of brumbies who liked playing on the road. Thank god for good brakes!!!
We started coming across patches of snow near the powerline track that leads you down to Talbingo, but it was very sporadic. Heading down the long drop into the valley, I found that locking the auto into first worked the best otherwise I was constantly on the brakes.
There were a couple of keen campers set up down the bottom, but other than that I really didn’t see anyone. The drive along the valley is short and sweet, and then you begin the big climb up the mountain.
There was no reason to stop at the lookout today, as the weather was atrocious. Any photo would’ve been a waste of time, although it was nice to see it snowing rather than raining.
Talking of which the snow started to appear both on the ground and falling around us as we continued to climb. The road had been recently scrapped so it was still an easy drive – definitely no need for chains.
Turning off we took the quick detour to Cabramurra. We had decided earlier to just grab some quick take-away for lunch as we still had a lot of km’s ahead of us. I dropped the missus off and took the kids up to the lookout for a play in the snow. Silly buggers didn’t even put a jacket on!
Dropping back down to the shop I spoke to a couple of blokes on a motorbike with sidecart. They were into me about wearing a t-shirt – hello fellas, you’re on a motorbike in the snow……
But it was good to say g’day and talk to people touring differently to how we all normally do. BTW they were headed further up the hill to camp for the weekend with some other bikers that were coming. Apparently they do it every year but this one was looking a bit colder than normal.
Continuing on we headed up to Three Mile Dam. No-one had been in there so I engaged low range and turned in up the track. It wanted to spin the wheels initially, but a little bit of back and forward movement to pack down the snow and it was all good.
We turned around at the edge of the lake and took some pictures whilst the kids had a play.
The missus also got a few photos of us driving back out to the main road. I wish we had more time, but we had a destination to make tonight and we’ve been lucky to have explored this area a lot of the last 4-5 years.
A quick run out to Kiadra followed with the Navman now telling me that the quickest way to Goulburn is through Rules Point and down towards the Brindabella’s. You wouldn’t believe how tempting it was to follow its guidance!
Instead however we did the ‘head smart’ thing and headed to Tumut. The snow finally petered out just before the drop into Talbingo. A flying trip no doubt, but the kids were happy that we made the effort to take them up there.
Turning off at Tumut we pointed towards Gundagai. It constantly amazes me how you can get a vehicle doing 70km/h and the next four vehicles will sit up each others clackers but won’t overtake. I proceeded to overtake the whole god damn lot of them over the course of about 4 km’s (safely of course) and that’s with a trailer on. How some people get licences has got me stuffed!
I’ll leave this story here, but it does continue onto our other destination (Wollondilly River station) on a link at the bottom of this page.
Cheers
Chris