It was damp when we left Ballarat and ran into a bit of rain south on the highway to Melbourne. Made a wrong turn heading towards the Western Gate bridge but the GPS guided us back on the right track, albeit through an industrial area. 4kms short of the bridge and we were 4 lanes gridlocked. Crawled over the bridge and along the edge of the CBD. Hadn't been through the tunnel under Melbourne before and that was an experience! imagine towing a caravan in a tunnel 4 lanes wide at 80kmph surrounded by large trucks with absolutely no margin for error, and this was off peak time. However we survived that and got onto the Monaro highway then the Princes highway as we headed northeast into East Gippsland passing through Sale and Bairnsdale. Arrived Lakes Entrance quite late in the day for us and booked in to a central caravan park. Got the awning up just in time for heavy rain and gusting winds which lasted well into the next morning. Couldn't be bothered cooking so we went down the road to Maca's instead. It was strange to smell the salt air again from this east coast estuary/harbour. Lots of fishing boats tied up at the jetties. Next morning the weather had cleared and was fine and sunny, so got away early as the countryside changed from rural paddocks to thick bush on the way to Cann River, where we turned off onto the Monaro highway north towards ACT and Jindabyne. Stopped at Cann River for a cuppa and we could smell the smoke from a large out of control bush fire southwest towards the coast and fortunately well away from us. Refueled here and slowly climbed up the winding Cann valley to the top of the Great Divide at 1120 metres above sea level. Going up the valley it was similar to the Lewis Pass in Canterbury (NZ), at the top, it changed to tussock and open plains just like the Lindis Pass (Otago), and from the Cooma juction where we turned off to Jindabyne, very much like the boulder hills of Central Otago. Our first glimpse of Lake Jindabyne was one of a lovely lake with islands, set amongst a valley of tussock and small trees. This is an alpine village during winter, close to Thredbo and Perisher Blue, the main two skifields of Kosciuszko National Park. During the summer like now, a playground for water sports. The village itself is quite large, a lot larger than Hanmer Springs. Pubs, a movie theatre, Woolies, lots of restaurants and coffee shops, souvenir and ski clothing shops etc, a Thai food cafe which we will visit tonight, banks, It is a well catered for area. The caravan park is excellent. Very large with good facilities. We are right down on the bank overlooking the lake with an unobstructed view. Next door is another pop top with folk from Sydney who come up here (alt 800m) every year at this time, so they are a wealth of local information. The movie theatre is currently showing "Avatar" so as a sci-fi fan I will be attending with my seniors discount card. In the next few days we will go up to Thredbo for the day, and perhaps some flyfishing in the Thredbo river not far from here. Will launch the boat also at some time. It is only a short hop from here to Queanbeyan in ACT where we will be for Christmas and New Year.
