The Adventure Begins

Whoopeee. Our adventure begins. Loaded up the van, mainly with beer, cider and red wine... and hitched up the car ready to start part 1 of our Walshies Down Under Trip.

Don’t worry, not every day will be an essay on r trip but do read on...

We are driving our trusted Toyota Kluger Grande, a bit of a workhorse really, complete with kayaks on the roof rack.

Our home for the next 5 months is our Goldstream “storm” campervan. We have mountain bikes at the rear and a whole range of creature comforts on board including air con. A 3 way fridge, oven, 2 x 60l water tanks, hot water system and shower, solar panel, TV, microwave, cuddly toy, and most importantly a Nespresso coffee machine.

Today we set off and are heading to The Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. It’s about a 6 hour drive. We’re camping at a place called Thredbo Diggings at the base of Mt kozciuszko, Australia’s tallest Mountain. Great for bike riding and hiking.

It’s the middle of summer here in Aus but Thredbo is part of the alpine region and yes, it’s a ski resort in winter so it still gets cold at night. Jen has her UGG Boots, they are well worn and have a hole in the big toe for ventilation.

DRIVE: Melbourne to Thredbo (551km)
So we’re driving up the Hume Highway towards Wodonda and almost ran out of petrol. Great start, we diverted to Barnawatha, it has a general store and that’s it and with 1k of petrol to go, we made it and refuelled.

We Came through Corryong and purchased a National Park pass at Khancoban and took The Alpine Way (Charlotte Pass) through to Thredbo which gets steep, windy and narrow after passing Tom Groggin. The car and camper did it easy and the scenic drive with snow gums lining the road was awesome.

THE CAMP
On the banks of Thredbo River, Thredbo Diggings is a beautiful scenic spot which gets busy during Summer weekends but clears out during the week.

Apart from bush sites for tents and caravans, the only facilities are pit toilets (no water supplies here, BYO) and fire pits for cooking in.

We setup overlooking the river with good elevation so we could see down the valley.

WILDLIFE
Ducks, Kangaroos, Rosellas, Brush Tail Possums

Sat having a Corona after setting up for the night.Les mer