We went to Charlotte Pass today after popping into Jindabyne to get a bit more drinking water and get rid of our rubbish. Toby was really tired and still not well, so we also thought it would give him a chance to sleep in the car.

We only did the very short walk to the lookout at Charlotte Pass. Nathan remembered walking down to the Snowy River last year and we promised to do some more walks with him in this area in a couple of years.

Every time we have been to the mountains since Nathan was born, there has been a photograph taken of Andrew with the kid/s, so (of course) we had to do it again this time. Unfortunately Toby was particularly upset and didn’t want to pose for a photo, but it will forever more remind us of the holiday in the mountains when Toby was sick.

Toby slept on the way back to the campsite, and after he woke we had a play in the Thredbo River at the campsite. It really is a lovely place.

Today we went for a drive to Yarrangobilly Caves. We had planned to leave our campsite early, but Toby slept in, and in, and in. He had had a bit of a fever overnight so I wasn’t suprised that he slept late, particularly given his exhausting day yesterday. He was still hot when he woke up, but he didn’t seem unwell so we went ahead with our plans.

We made it to the caves at around 11:30 after a couple of stops for a motion sick Toby and another stop for a play at the playground in Adaminaby. We bought tickets for the 1:45 tour of Jillabenan cave. Tickets were $20 per adult and kids less than school age free. We ate our lunch in a picnic area that had a big shelter complete with free electric BBQs, kitchen for washing and even power points.

The cave was small, but the formations were beautiful. There were lots of delicate little stalactites hanging from the ceiling, some water pools with formations happening at their edges, stalagmites and columns and even a shawl or two. The tour went for about 45 minutes, and we were shown stones with fossils of sea creatures, a sign of the coral reef that the area used to be. There was also a column that had been cut in half, and it was so interesting because you could see the original stalagmite that was engulfed when the stalactite met it to form the column. The cave was said to be 2 million years old.

When the cave tour was over we drove to the carpark for the thermal springs and walked the 700 metres down a steep track to the swimming pools which are a constant 27 degrees celcius. I only had to carry Toby the last bit, but was already dreading the walk back up to the car! Nathan and Andrew had a great swim in the deep pool (2.5 metres maximum depth) while I dangled my legs in the water and held a very tired Toby who dozed. We saw a little water dragon and Nathan told me he’d seen it swim across a corner of the pool! I had a little swim with Nathan after Andrew got out, and it was really nice. There was a lot of algae growing on the edges of the pool and weeds growing in the bottom.

It was an exhausting trip back to the car carrying Toby the entire way. But we made it, of course. We drove back to our tent site, stopping at Adaminaby for dinner at the pub and a photo with the giant trout.

The weather was perfect today. Perfect for going on a walk. We chose one that we haven’t done before. It was approx. 6 km in length (Andrew recorded 6.9 km), a loop with a waterfall at around the halfway point. We packed our lunches and drinks into our backpacks. The kids each carried one and we had one other. The big problem with going on walks while we are here is that I didn’t bring a carrier of any description because Toby just hasn’t wanted to be in one for a long time. So I sort of forgot to bring one for carrying a tired child on walks.

Toby slept until 8 am this morning, so I figured we had plenty of time before he got tired, even though we arrived at the walk at 11 am. Well, I figured wrong. He was asking to be carried well before we reached the waterfall. So it ended up being a really slow walk, because I did a lot of carrying of Toby. Andrew also did some while Toby was asleep.

It was a beautiful walk, going through some lovely bush. At one point there was a lot of orange flowers out (egg and bacon flowers?) on bushes. The ground was a little undulating. Andrew had a little program on his phone which indicated we had just under a 200 m elevation throughout the walk. The waterfall was nice but there wasn’t anywhere to stop there to eat your lunch, so we crossed the fence and perched ourselves in the shade on a large rock near the water. On the way back we went through an area of large granite boulders which was pretty interesting. Andrew and Nathan climbed one of the boulders to see the view while I rested with the sleeping child. It seemed to take forever to get back, but we finally made it to the car.

Yesterday it didn’t rain a lot, but it was really, really windy. Unpleasantly windy. We went into Jindabyne to do a bit of grocery shopping. Otherwise it was a day of sorting out our campsite and I wanted to update my Wispy Threads website with a heap of new hats, so I spent a while taking photos of hats which wasn’t easy with the wind and the rain. We went back into Jindabyne at around 7:30 pm to go to Carols by Candlelight. The kids had fun running around and rolling down the grassy hill, and both loved the fireworks. It was the first time Toby had ever seen fireworks too!

Today the weather was significantly better and we spent some time down at the river this morning. The water was freezing, but it didn’t stop the kids paddling in it and throwing stones for about an hour. This afternoon Nathan, Toby and I went to Bullocks Hut. The kids rode while I walked. It was fine getting there, the kids had a ball, but getting back was too difficult for Toby. He still often has day sleeps but I had hoped he’d be ok today without…but he wasn’t. He rode some of the way back, then he walked some and rode some, then he wanted me to carry the bike, and then he wanted to be carried as well. I did for a few minutes and by that time he was asleep, and it was impossible to carry a floppy nearly-3-year-old as well as his bike, so I texted Andrew (thankfully there was coverage, i had my phone and it wasn’t flat) to ask him to come and help us. I just sat on a log in the shade and waited for my hero to arrive. 🙂

Andrew and I shared the carrying of Toby back to the campsite. He didn’t stay asleep when we put him in the tent, but that didn’t matter as he’d already had a decent nap. A bit of food and a drink and he was ready to go at full speed again. Andrew took the kids back to the river while I cooked dinner and updated my blog. After dinner we tried to give them a bit of a wash in warm water, but the black bag we were trying for the first time to heat water using the sunlight had already cooled a bit and the air temperature had dropped as well. The boys shivered through their wash and then ran around a bit more, talked to people and rode their bikes for a bit more before falling asleep more quickly than normal when they went to bed. Once again I wasn’t too far behind them.

At the start of the walk to Bullocks Hut

Come on Mummy! We are waiting for you!

Nearly at the hut.

We left on our regular pre-Christmas camping trip yesterday. We had been undecided about where to go now that we have the camper trailer, and finally decided on the northern part of Kosciuszko National Park. We left home a bit later than we’d hoped, and we decided to just go to our normal campsite and we’d make a day trip to the northern part of the park, or maybe even come home that way and spend a night in a campground up there.

We also decided that now that Toby is better at traveling in the car that we’d try to get to the mountains in one day instead of staying overnight in (or near) Albury. That was fine with me as it was raining all day and the idea of setting up the camper in the rain and then probably packing it up wet again the next day to keep traveling just didn’t appeal.

We had a break for lunch at Euroa, another in Albury for the kids to play on the fabulous Adventure Playground there and then it was straight to the campsite. Poor Toby had his usual bout of motion sickness while traveling on the Alpine Way. We made it to our campsite quite late but there was still some daylight to get the camper set up.

It continued raining while we were setting up the camper, and when it wasn’t so hard or stopped briefly the kids went splashing in the puddles in their gumboots or riding through them on their bikes. At least it has cleaned off all most of the mud that was still caked on their brakes and wheels from our last trip. We had a very late dinner with two overtired kids going crazy, but finally they were in bed and asleep. I wasn’t far behind! It’s been a very busy few weeks.

Today we got going quickly since we wanted to catch the 8:30 am discovery tour and we were supposed to be at the Visitor Centre half an hour before the tour. We were the only ones on the tour, which was good because the kids weren’t always quiet. We went back to the Walls of China lookout that we went to last night, but we were able to walk around the sand dunes and formations with the guide, who’s name was Robert. Robert showed us old middens, bones that were both in the ground and sitting on top, and he talked about the aboriginal culture a lot.

After the tour we started driving around the Mungo Drive loop which took us past several points of interest. Red Top Lookout was our first stop where we saw more of the eroded formations and Mungo Lake (it has been dry for 17,000 years). We were all hungry for lunch, so we bypassed Rosewood Rest and Mallee Stop and headed for Belah Camp. The mallee scrub was quite a different landscape to the low shrubs of the dry lake.

We found a shady spot at Belah Camp for lunch. It was bushier than the main camp where we set up our camper, and there was a toilet with water. I have been impressed with the toilets at the park which have all had a tank to collect rainwater that could be used for hand washing.

After lunch we stopped at Round Tank where there is a feral goat trap. They come to the water to drink and are unable to get out of the fence surrounding the dam once they are inside. They are then sold and the money raised supplements the funds of the park.

Our next stop was at Vigars Well which was used as a watering spot years ago. Just behind the water were sand dunes which were incredible to walk on. We sat on top of a dune and built sand castles….you just couldn’t find a better sand pit to play in! Unfortunately it was a bit windy, and Toby was pretty tired, so we didn’t spent as long there as we would have liked to.

The last stop before we got back to the visitors centre was another old woolshed. Then we went back to our campsite and started cooking our marinaded flat chicken and roast veggies for our dinner. Afterwards we went again to the visitors centre for showers and then it was back for bed. It was another beautiful evening, and although there were plenty of flies around during the day, there didn’t seem to be many insects at night. I also managed to snap a few Major Mitchell cockatoos as well before it got dark.

A formation in the Walls of China

Bone artifacts

Climbing a sand dune

At Red Top Lookout

Baked Emu footprint

Feral goat trap

Nathan with emu on the sand dunes

We made it!

A great sand pit!