From Melbourne, we decided to head up into the mountains for a few days. We had heard mention of snowy mountains and ski areas. Might be worth a look. We set off in a vaguely north-east direction. First point of interest was the Powers Lookout. A rocky escarpment high above the King Valley. The hideout of Harry Power, a notorious, gentleman bushranger of the 1860s who reputedly befriended a young Ned Kelly before leading him into a life of crime. Power hid up here for 8 years but was eventually caught. For all the bandit history, the views were terrific.
Next day, we arrived in Harrietville and discovered a barrier across the road. We needed snow chains to go any further. There was no snow. The weather was warm and sunny. Barely a cloud in the sky but nonetheless we needed snow chains. The helpful woman at the barrier directed us to a shop to hire chains for the day. I asked if she got a kickback from the chain shop but she just smiled at me. At the shop they were happy to provide chains. They did not bother to show us how to fit them because we were not going to use them. In fact, we would drop them off at their sister shop in Omeo in about two hours. Back at the barrier, we got waved through and off we went up the mountain.
The drive up to Hothem Heights was uneventful. We eventually found some snow on the hillside but not very much off it. Hothem is a ski resort that is upside down. The resort is at the top of the hill and the slopes all go down from it. We spotted one working chair lift and many that were clearly closed because of lack of snow on the pistes. This should be about the snowiest time of the year but it is not working out very well.
On the way down, we saw a wombat. We had noticed several dead wombats by the roadside but this one was alive. I stopped the van and was lucky enough to get a couple of pictures before it wandered off into the undergrowth. Wombats are nocturnal, so I was particularly fortunate to see one at all. The presence of wombats can be verified by their distinctive square faeces. They are the only animal in the world that deposits curiously cubical crap. Their primary defence is their toughened rear hide. Most of the posterior is made of cartilage. It has no tail. When attacked, wombats dive into a tunnel, using their rumps to block a pursuing attacker. Urban legend has it that wombats sometimes allow an intruder to force its head over the wombat’s back so that it can use its powerful legs to crush the skull of the predator against the roof of the tunnel. A group of wombats is called a wisdom.
It was getting late in the afternoon. We pulled into the only campsite for miles around and were appalled to be charged three times the normal amount to stay overnight. The woman explained that this was peak season although the mostly deserted campsite appeared to contradict this. In the evening, we walked down to the river and saw a platypus swimming around. This was at least some compensation for the exorbitant campsite fees. We watched it for a good hour. Swimming about in an area of slack water. Diving every few minutes to eat weed. Unfortunately, we never got a really unobstructed view of the platypus but we had at least seen one.
Next day, we headed north again, towards the mountains again. This time we were completely thwarted by the snow chain restrictions. Every road appeared to require that we had chains. The was still no snow on the road. Or any of the surrounding hills. There was no obvious place to hire chains so although the restriction was not enforced by barriers, we chose to adhere to the rules. The consequences in terms of insurance and the van rental agreement were dire if anything bad happened. We ended up going through the Namadgi National Park. The road was a bit rough in places but it was a lovely drive. To avoid Canberra, we made a sharp righthand turn and set off for the coast.
The next day, while driving north towards Jarvis Bay, we saw a sign for the Jerrawangala Lookout. It was approaching lunchtime, so we set off in the hope of finding somewhere nice to stop. The sign did not actually state how far it was to the lookout. The road became very narrow with many potholes. It turned steeply up a hillside and became more of a dirt track. The track twisted and wriggled its way up onto an exposed ridge and then became a very narrow path between trees. Eventually, we arrived at a small car park with picnic tables. A thin path and walkway took us to the lookout. It was spectacular and worth the half-hour drive up the hill.
In the evening we camped on the south side of Jarvis Bay. It was a pleasant, warm evening. At the far side of the bay we could see a lighthouse built on top of some magnificent cliffs basking in the evening sun. This looked like a good place to visit. We could even spend some time on top of the cliffs looking for whales. At this time of year, whales are travelling north from Antarctica to the breeding areas in warmer seas. Next day, we headed in the general direction of the cliffs. We found a signpost for the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse and then we arrived at a military checkpoint for a weapons range. This was a bit unexpected but we talked to guard anyhow. I was anticipating that we would be turned around however, we were allowed past. We needed to leave our details and promise to stay on the track. A few kilometres further on, we arrived at the lighthouse. This is a lovely building that was an active lighthouse for a hundred years. In 1993 it was retired in favour of a modern, unmanned light, on a metal framework. We met some climbers. They were abseiling off the top of the cliffs and then climbing back up again. They reported seeing whales close to the cliffs an hour earlier. We spent some time wandering around the cliff tops and staring out to sea but saw nothing.
Further north, we stopped for the night and walked up to a whale watching platform. This was a nicely built circular platform on the hillside. Unfortunately, the trees had grown and it was almost impossible to spot the ocean beyond them.
The day before arriving in Sydney, we followed some spectacular coast roads including the Sea Cliff Bridge. This juts out from the cliff so that you are driving directly above the waves. Many people were parked around here to take photographs. The road then climbed steeply up to the Royal National Park and directly beyond that, was Sydney.
