Now at Thredbo, we are within just a few kilometres of the border. We want to hike to the highest point on the mainland before we cross it. The weather is not cooperating, but we've found enough work to keep us busy while we wait.
When the first weekend arrived, so did the bikes. There seems to be some kind of national testosterone competition enveloping us.
Eventually, the cloud cleared enough for us to do the Kosciuszko hike. At the top, the cloud was low, the temperature in single digits, and the wind was brisk, taking the wind chill well below zero. The view from the top was almost completely obscured by clouds, but the alpine grasslands were impressive none the less.
The weather kept improving, and the following weekend, Fred and Jenny stopped in. With Jenny providing motivation, Helen made a second trek to the top, this time in near perfect weather.
While Helen and Jenny were hiking, Bill and Fred crossed temporarily into Victoria, and after a quick fishing stop on the Murray, drove up Mt Pinnibar. 360 degree views, including back across the Murray Valley to Mt Kosciuszko.
After a couple of days of fishing, the Bears headed back to the big smoke. We spent the rest of the week taking care of a few final customer calls, and doing a little contract work for a Sydney based customer.
The highlander laptop has died again. Worse still, Helen had done several days (of contract) work, and no backup. We emailed them about repairs, only to be told that they were closing for the silly season and it would be more than 2 weeks before they could accept it. With the delays of rural transport, we'll probably be one laptop short for at least a month. That really sucks!
There seems little prospect of finding work during the silly season, so after a comprehensive stocking up, we headed off into the Victorian high country. We entered Alpine National Park through the 4WD only tracks, starting at Tom Groggin, over Mt Sassafras, and to Eustace's Gap campground on Lake Dartmouth.
After a bit of bad weather, and then a bit of kayaking and hiking, and even another echidna spotting, we headed off to Dinner Plain, just short of Mt Hotham. We stayed a night at a lodge, gave a few customers a bit of advice, then headed into the mountains again.
We camped a night alongside a creek in Talbotville, near some bird highways. A satin bowerbird was raiding a plum tree taking the spoils into the bushes, and a family of honeyeaters were tormenting the wattle birds. Just a few of the many that buzzed our camp that night.
From there we went on to the Wonnangatta Valley. The forecast was for high winds, but we were fairly well protected in the valley. We stayed a couple of nights and explored the valley on foot.
As we drove up out of the valley we began to get a little rain, and the forecast was more. We donned our rain jackets and went for a short hike, but the rain continued. Since we were on a stretch of 2WD road, and the 4WD tracks were deteriorating quickly, we decided it would be prudent to depart the mountains without completing the last leg of our intended trip. There's that changeable mountain weather again.
We had to take the long way around. Not wanting to bother with the tent in the now pouring rain, we also had to find alternate accommodation. On New Years day. We ended up paying more than we wanted, but we were warm and dry. It snowed in the mountains.
We did a bit more exploring along the western side of the mountains as we made our way to Col & Marge's in Yackandandah. We stopped for another kayak on Lake Buffallo, despite the lingering bad weather.
Any prospect of working in Yackandandah quickly vanished. They have a community centre offering free computer classes, and at least one person doing other kinds of help. There are just too many big towns nearby.
So we got out our recently acquired population figures, and mapped the Victorian population density. It looks like we'll have to travel a little further west to find suitable territory to work in.
While we were in the area, we spent a couple of days exploring Beechworth, one of Australia's best preserved gold mining towns.
We shipped the laptop off to Sydney, and restocked the truck (without fruit & vegies until we crossed the fruit fly exclusion line). We even found a stock standard cable to attach the truck aerial to the mobile phone while leaving the data port free. It was pleasant to find a mobile phone retailer that knew their business (thanks to Colin at Optus in Albury).