As this is meant to be a relaxed getaway with no real plan, we decide to pack up slowly on Saturday and get away on Sunday morning. So, Sunday we’re up at 7 and we hit the road south by about 9am. The traffic is light and we make pretty good time. A quick stop at the Yass service centre for fuel and we arrive in Tumut around 2.
We duck into the Tourist information centre. They don’t have loads of info, but to confirm a visit to the Yarrangobilly Caves would be in order. They also advise that one of the roads in the national park will be closed till the weekend. I had thought about taking it next week, but they suggested taking a van over it might not be a good idea. There are a few roads down here that seem to be limited like that.
Just south of here is Blowering Reservoir (lake), a dam that is part of the Snowy Hydro system, there is meant to be 3 or 4 camps along the east side of the lake, so we’ll drive and find one that takes our fancy.
Being school holidays, it’s hard to know how busy the places will be. We passed the first camp, but this can’t be seen from the road. As we approach the second one, known as “the Pines” we can see a cleared area by the side of the lake. It looks OK, maybe a bit exposed, but there seems to be a big group of campers there. We move onto the next Hume’s Crossing. This look similar to the pines, but there does not seem to be as many people.
We go in for a look, the area is huge, with 100’s of meters of shoreline. There are maybe 4-5 small groups. As we enter, we see what ends up being the resident Emu, we’ll see him again a few more times. We find a spot, as level as we can, so we are 50 or so meters from the water and setup for the night.
The place is great, although a bit exposed and the wind is pretty strong in the afternoon.
We wander around the lake foreshore taking in the great scenery and start to relax. There is a family group of 3 or 4 cars down by the point and another van about 200mtrs in the other direction, but it still feels like we have place pretty much to ourselves.
As the night starts to cool, at least the wind drops. A small campfire, I really missed these. I get the chance to run the diesel heater for the first time in anger, even on the lowest setting it’s doing the trick. There is a new moon tonight and while there is the small glow of Tumut at the far end of the dam, it is a really dark night and we one of the best views of the stars we’ve had in ages. Probably better than just about any night of the Oz trip.