Back to Cooma

At last we finally get away from Canberra,we won't be going back in a hurry,maybe we would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't had the trouble with the van still, it's fixed and we are much happier.We phone the garage in Cooma to see if they can do the service as we would prefer to be stuck in a rural town for a day or two rather than a city or an industrial estate. It's obvious on the return trip the van is going much better and we give it the ultimate test by going up Mount Gladstone to a lookout point above Cooma. It's a 1:6 hill for 1K and the old van romps up.The views from the top are very good although there is a heat haze. We are up a depth, Cooma being 800M above sea level but from our lookout we can see mountains all around and that is where we plan to go. After a bit of shopping we call in at the garage and they can fit us in on Friday morning which gives us a day to have look a bit further a field. We plan to explore the Snowy Mountains so back to Snowtels Camp. Very peaceful, the only drawback is lack of internet and we know we are behind with the bog.
Day 2 in Cooma. Up and away up the Snowy Mountain Highway and across the Great Dividing Range not spectacular but we can imagine how it looks in the snow. It's not called the roof of Australia for nothing some of the bigger mountains are upwards of 2000M. At 1400M we stop at the long abandoned gold mining town of Kiandra. Not much to see now,except what is left of the courthouse and the cemetery. Hard to imaginge that there was a population of 20,000 and now nobody. We move on to Yarangabilly Caves, 6K down a dirt track road,one way thank goodness. At the end there is a lovely old wooden chalet and a tourist info place. We pay for the self guided tour as there doesn't seem to be anyone else here. Our tour through the cave is fascinating, discrete lighting comes on as we follow the board walk, until we emerge back into the daylight. We decide to have lunch at the natural spring thermal pool,unfortunately it is down a very steep,rough track which we have to walk down. The pool is quite extraordinary...... manmade 2.5M deep and 20M long. It's a bit green and slimy but the water is clean and a constant 27 degrees fed from water miles underground. We can't wait to get in. It's all in the middle of nowhere but with changing rooms and the usual deep drop dunny and nobody here.After a swim and lunch it's all spoilt by biting horse flies and a group of Italians so we scrambled back up the track( a real pipe opener!) then 6 more kilometers of dirt road back to the highway. A long drive back to Cooma having done a round trip of 250K but well worth it in fantastic weather would you believe. Tomorrow may bring Plan C(subsection 3) into play as we beleive the route we would like to take through the Snowys is not suitable for buses,trucks and caravans. We will make enquiries in the morning.