39. 2021 C. NSW Clockwise Unwinding Tour. Snowy Mountains. Buckenderra to Yarrangobilly Caves and Village Campground.

As most of NSW and QLD was being lashed by one in one hundred year floods, some areas receiving as much as half a metre of rainfall, we headed for high ground at Buckenderra on the shores of Lake Eucumbene. 

Here we settled into Buckenderra from the 19th to the 25th March and waited for the weather to abate whilst being fortunate enough to only have about four days of light rain and drizzle. The park is one of the most expansive, beautiful parks we have encountered during our travels.

Lake Eucumbene is currently at about 37% capacity. 
It has the potential capacity of about nine times the volume of Sydney Harbour. 

Autumn colours with lots of space. 

Play equipment for the kids, views for all and a lake for the fisherman. 

Netting of migrating ambulatory trout is allowed in parts of the park. 

Tennis anyone?

The view from our caravan to which we took in for four days whilst waiting for the weather to clear. 

Twilight brings out the lawn mowers.

Recent lake levels can be seen on the far bank. Currently it is at 37% capacity. 

Alternative camping area.

Exceptional eyesight from the water is required to conform with speed restrictions. 
It would be okay once the lake fills. 

Despite the large sign, boaties would require binoculars to read it due to the proximity to the water.  

The drive up to Adaminaby revealed some iconic Aussie scenes.  The original town of Adaminaby was moved to higher ground, up and over the Great Divide due to the flooding created by the building of Lake Eucumbene. 

Farm houses from earlier days. 

Remnants in the northern part of the sky of the great deluge which has drenched the eastern seaboard. 

Fish Farming or Pisciculture appears to be thriving in Adaminaby.
(We are going to need a bigger pond!)
The Snowy Mountains are renown for brown and rainbow fly-fishing. 

Australia's largest engineering project which brought migrant skills from around the world. 
The Snowy II scheme is currently being constructed. 

This Commercial Banking Company building was built in 1919 in Old Adaminaby before being moved in 1957 due to planned flooding. 
Three stages of moving were required moving the double storey building above, a single storey extension and a thirty seven tonne vault made of iron and concrete. 
At the time it was the biggest building ever relocated. 

Beautiful wide avenues of Adaminaby with the church at pride of place at the end on top of the hill. 

St John's Church of England was originally built in Old Adaminaby in 1906 before being dismantled stone by stone, after all had been numbered and recorded. 
The church was faithfully rebuilt in pride of place in the new town in less than a year.   
How long would it take now for the same job??

A video with the history can be seen to the front left of the church, town and area. 

Old time full size climbing ladder, fireman's pole, trapeze, swings and slippery slide so often removed from parks due to the cotton wool philosophy of protecting kiddies. 

Lake Eucumbene from near Old Adaminaby. 

We moved into our extensive new site of Denison Campground in the Kosciuszko National Park giving endless serenity and wildlife. 

No complaints were received from our neighbours about our noise.  
The Eucumbene River is the blue just above the roof of our caravan, and can grow to fill the whole plain giving a shoreline of 145km.  

Looking for neighbours. 

Kangaroos come out of the woodwork as the shadows lengthen. 

The resident Wombat seemed to be on a different time cycle to us. 

A Scarlet Robyn shared our picnic table.

Quite puzzling really!

No matter which way you look at it!

Our barbeque with timber supplied. 
Note the perches for roosting and roasting. 

Rhipidura Leucophrys (Willy Wagtail) blending in with a Combustious Implementian Supportious bracket (barbeque/billy stand)

The intense look happened every time the camera gave a quiet click. 

Grace and boundless energy. 

Some scratches are difficult to reach. 

This is the life, "Dinner in bed!"

We untethered the tandem for a ride down to the river, then up into the bush. 

The rapid speed of flow really surprised us. 

The ride then took us up into the bush for some exploring, meeting a fencer. (Not as in the Three Musketeers but as in wire and star pickets) 

The fencer warned us about him encountering several cranky Eastern Brown and Tiger snakes in the last couple of days, saying that the crankiness was a result of subzero temperatures at night and moderate temperatures during the day.  A cold snake doesn't have the ability to move so quickly in nippy conditions so feels threatened more readily and hence attacks.

He didn't mention the Eastern Brown is the second most deadly snake in the world, and can be fatal to humans within half an hour if not treated. 

He did, however, mention about where to find an old steam engine left deserted in the bush for the last 80 years or so from a prior timber mill. 

Bushfires reaked havoc in this part of the world. 
The 2019/2020 bushfires burnt out 186,000 square kilometres of Australian bush.
 (To give perspective, the area of the United Kingdom is 243,000 km2.) 

Enjoying a peaceful retirement in the bush long after logging days have passed. 

Rejuvenation of the bush is always impressive. 

Suckers appear not only from the trunk and branches, but also from the roots. 

We returned downhill to Adaminaby on a Saturday morning to view the Snowy Mountains Scheme Museum run by volunteers. It showcases the hard times and the incredible feat of tunnelling, damming, power stations, and diversion of water to the west; in freezing winter conditions and stifling summer heat. Only two percent of the project is above ground. 

One hundred and twenty one men died during the construction, and when we viewed the lack of safety gear, we were amazed it wasn't higher. 

A digger especially for our grandson, Isaac. 

For those who don't know the poem, "The Man from Snowy River",  by Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, could we suggest you look it up for a great part of Australia's heritage.

We have been getting so much more out of this trip thinking of so many aspects of the poem.  

The NSW and Victorian Brumbies, or Wild Bush Horses, are thought to have originated from horses left behind when Sergeant James Brumby was transferred from Botany Bay to Van Diemens Land (later Tasmania) in 1806. Due to lack of fencing, the horses were impossible to catch and became known as Brumby's horses, and later Brumbies. 

Their numbers are thought now to exceed 25,000 in the Alpine areas. 

The steep slope and signs of horses brought back memories:
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed
While the others watched in very fear. 

A sign of things to come.

Kiandra once sported a population of 10,000 in the gold rush and was the birthplace of Australian Skiing but also suffered badly from the fires. 

The last remaining building in Kiandra, the Courthouse building braved one hundred and thirty years of wind, snow and rain, but was no match for the fires; or was it.  

The Kiandra high planes.  Cold, open and windswept. 

A snap out of the car window shows endless burnt out areas. 
All the safety barriers have been replaced due to buckling from intense heat. 

Our campsite at Yarrangobilly Village on the Yarrangobilly River was right out of a documentary on ideal sites.  Lush green grass, level block, fast flowing stream and long drop toilets.  

Carrol viewing the camera, and an ideal view, out the door of the caravan.  

The view Carrol was actually waving to. 

As Harrison quoted in The Man from Snowy River movie about the high country;
"One moment it's paradise, the next it's trying to kill you!"

Getting out of bed before dawn in subzero temperatures to check the horses, or the fences or whatever they do in the high country, Don became aware of a shape in the mist. 

A brumby simply standing and determining if it was safe to proceed. 

Coming in closer for a photo shoot with Don clad only in dressing gown and sandals, the frostbite just had to wait with such a sight. 
The temperature in the caravan had been 1c, and outside -5c. 

Mist rising from our river. 

The iconic shot of an Aussie long drop toilet and a high country brumby. 

Cool!

The sun and gas heater are starting to warm up the van. 

Oh, give me a home where the brumbies roam
And the snakes and the kangaroos play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.  

A quick heavy downpour later brought out a waddle of ducks plus some, into our campsite. 
Carrol advised there are seventeen ducks to a waddle. 

Australian (Maned) Wood Duck. 
Possibly a descendant of Jemima Puddleduck. 

The downpour ruffled our feathers as well, but at least we didn't turn our backs on each other. 

Yarrangobilly Caves are a series of independent limestone caves in the northern region of the Kosciuszko National Park. 

The area also features an old guest house and a twenty metre thermal pool fed by natural warm water springs giving a temperature of 27c year round.  We enjoyed a swim, which contrasted quite well to the cool start to the day. 

 

Caves House, built and holding its age well. 

91,000 litres of 27c spring fed water, flow through the pool every hour. 

Much growth in the pool reflects great water quality and warm temperature. 

Caves House only a kilometre away was saved from the fires. 

Regeneration after the fires.  

Countless trees have been cut down due to safety concerns.
Note the growth rings.  

More than one hundred years of living showing some years were better than others. 

The Caves were closed from 1966 to 1968 to allow prisoners from Cooma Gaol to upgrade the facilities, which seems ironic that one would think it more in the prisoner's constitution to tunnel out and not tunnel improve.  

Our first cave to explore, South Glory Cave, leads off to the right and is a self-guided cave of 470m including 206 steps plus ramps. 
A person can be seen in the entrance to the North Cave. 

The entrance was well lit, however, our torches didn't do justice to the inside. 

The steps were a real credit to whoever cut them out, giving more head room in many parts.
Standard prisoner issue for tunnelling is generally a sharpened spoon.  

A drive through burnt out bushland took us to another cave complex, the Jillabenan Cave, where a wonderful National Parks Ranger named Regina gave us an enlightening educational tour and lesson on the soda straw stalactites, flowstone shawls, cave coral and helictites. 

Warning about the impact of bushfires. 

This rail was perfectly straight before the fires. 

A guided tour is the only option for the Jillabenan Cave, and very much worth it. 

About to be devoured.  

We had never seen so many stalactites and stalagmites. 

Just out of shot to the bottom of the picture was an area of wall turning black. 
This has only happened in post Covid times and has been put down to the chemical reaction of hand sanitiser on the limestone. 

Strategically placed electric lighting gave better vision than in the dimly lit South Glory Cave. 

A plug removed to fit a handrail illuminated by torch light. 

Overhead view looking directly up. 
We would think this quite deadly if the ceiling collapsed. 

Land coral formations. 

A set from Phantom of the Opera. 

We leave the caves for camp and more exploring in the high country tomorrow. 

Everyone needs a stream like this at the front door; and so much more relaxing than watching a screen. 

Back to camp and a contrast of two types of horsepower 

The sun has set on another day as the moon rises on the old deserted Yarrangobilly homestead; the only remaining relic of the Yarrangobilly Village after which our campsite takes its name.  

We continue in the high country in search for huts and brumbies. 

Take care. God bless. 

Cheers, Don and Carrol.