Driving though the car problems (in the high lands)

We were driving through the High Country and witnessing some amazing views and taking some small roads and tracks for that matter. This is where the term Snail really took effect.

On the way we stopped at the "Oriental Claims" which was a area of land they had destroyed to produce gold over many years but in very small quantities. The records show they produced 1 and 1/2 Tonne in 50 years, the country has paid dearly for it and they wrecked the water source too! We did the little tourist walk they had there, through the mine site and learnt the facts about Hydraulic Sluicing for gold( basically washing the mountain away with high pressure water and sifting through the run off). Over 50 km of channels (aquaducts) were dug to divert water for this process.We passed through Omeo and were feeling pretty tired at this point, but decided to push on a little further to find a nice bush camp. Back on the birt roads...



Driving through this part of the country we saw wild dogs that had been hunted, scalped and strung up from road signs, many of them over a vast area of dirt road. We felt that this was definitely NOT the right country for us to stop in, for a number of reasons, so we pushed WAY, WAY on. Through many more bush tracks and steep, narrow, winding roads until we though we couldn't handle any more bumps on our rumps... then we came across the lovely outskirts of Nariel and Stacey's Bridge.

Lovely spot to set up camp, tall gum trees, large open grassed (maintained) areas, next to a river or in park lands, and well maintained pit loos. We all jumped out eager to stretch after a huge drive and go for a walk. The girlie's fetched out the local rabbit warren, which i had conveniently pulled up next to... yeah, another adventure park for dogs! We put them on the leash so they wouldn't disrupt too much wild life and whilst on the lead Delta ran under the car and came out with oil on her jacket... the car problems begin. (She has since been forgiven for 1) running away at Marley Point and 2) being the bearer of bad news. )

Nick can explain for anyone who may be interested (i really have no idea what this all means,except we are going slower, blowing more smoke and that this will cost $$ to fix)

Leaking Oil from the rear main seal (remove gearbox, clutch and flywheel to fix : ( big job) , Leaking Diesel from the filter and some of the hoses (so thats where our economy was going) lucky we were carrying spare oil, filter and hose clamps. So the next morning we top up the oil and chug on to the next bigger town.

Onwards we went towards Corryong ( on a Sunday the 17/3/13) stopped at a lovely look out. Nick had a look at the car and i made a few phone calls and got up-to-date with facebook and posting my last blog. As well as finding out some dreadfully sad news about one of the students i used to work with at Wiltja.(thanks for being available to talk with Petra) Once Nick had decided the locals might not be too happy with him spilling diesel in the lookout car park we called the  RAA (RACV).

There is humour to this as we had spoken with Eleanore, my bestie, and our mail sorter(and i mean that with the most affection, thankyou soo much, couldnt do it without you xxx.) just before and she told us of our due bills, we decided to pay health cover and the last full water bill we will see for a year and the RAA could wait a little(even though it had just expired).

So we head to the RACV and talk to the fellow who gives Nick a few tips but says we need to call it through. After i had just spoken to Eleanore i call her back requesting BPAY information.
So we eventually call it in and get this country mechanic to come help us on a brilliant (blue skies, warm breeze) Sunday afternoon. Nick and i played a guessing game of what we were interrupting him from (cricket match, Sunday lunch) anyways i love the quick service you get with country towns, less than 20 minutes and he rocks up.

He replaced the fuel filter and cleaned the in line filter which was full of metal particles from the tank, tighten the hole clamps on the ageing fuel lines and bleed the air from the fuel system. not the hardest of jobs but frowned upon when being done in a lookout car park. (thats nick again)


Back on the road again and fuel problem fixed but still leaking oil, were trying to think of it as a constant partial oil change every time we top up, but she will hold out till we get back to Adelaide.

This is what awaited us....
So this where it get really fun and we start pushing through to Mt Kosciusko. The poor snail it still blowing smoke and putting along, but she kept going, thanks Nissan, and Nicks loving driving....having to go up some steep roads in 1st gear, sometimes we can get thru in 2nd, were really lucky if we find we can make it up in 3rd. So can you just imagine how long it took us to get to this first lookout, called Scrammell's lookout. We both decided that we didn't want to push the car any further for the day, and we all needed a rest. We pulled up and spent a chilly night in the car park.

It was frosty cold when the sun was up, and someone who was there admiring the view said that it was already 9c. When the sun started going down, the mountains turned this amazing pink colour, which only lasted a few minutes.

We turned a little "crazy" with all the cold, that's Nicks "crazy" face. The stars were AMAZING, being high up, and with nothing else around, like street lights and such.. It definitely was a 2 dog night (on the bed).






When we got moving the next day (which took a while, as we had to thaw out), we kept creeping along, at a slow enough pace to piss off all the cars behind us (sorry, well actually not really). Our first stop of the day in Kosciusko was the Creek. Glad we didn't stay here last night as it was next to the road, and didn't have the same charm as the lookout.

 Spot the happy Girlie's below.

What a beautiful creek, the water was so clear, the sun was out and the sky so blue, it magnified all the pretty colours of the rocks below the water level. We pressed on and climbed really high. the landscape changed so much, the trees were all dead, and it was 'bleak" looking. We were at the Great Dividing range. We were coming up to Thredo and Mt Kosciusko.

 



 

 

We continued on, eager for our first look at Thredbo, albeit in the summer months, but to see the "Alpine Village". It was cute and looked exactly like what we had pictured, the shape and style of the buildings and all, and wasn't as empty as we thought. The chair lifts were still going, for the bush walkers. We would have liked to go for a hike, but couldn't risk walking around with the girlie's, in a national park, that they weren't meant to be in, in the first pace, and couldn't possibly leave them in the car for 6 + hours. Them's the breaks. To warm up on the way down from the mountains we found an awesome schnapps distillery called wildbrumby. Tasted all the schnapps then ran... hehehe.

 

 

We drove through Jindabyne and found a really yummy cookie factory, where we spent probably more than we needed to but they had these amazing seconds. mmm so good.

 

On Monday the (18/3/13) our way through Cooma approx 140km to Canberra (on our way Wakefields!!!) We noticed a Kyokushin Karate dedicated club. Its the same "form" that Nick has trained in Adelaide, so he went and enquired, after they had finished their Monday night training. Guess what, they train on Wednesday nights also, so WE are going to train tonight. The Sensai has even said we can put the dogs in the backyard while we train.

 

This is the beautiful spot we have camped at Numerella river, the clouds covered the mountain backdrop this morning. How beautiful.