Marlo to Cooma

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This morning we woke to the news that a woman drowned in flash flooding that swept through the caravan park at Buchan yesterday afternoon. The weather was bad in Marlo last night but up in the ranges it was much, much worse. It was terrible to hear news of a fatality not far from where we were.

It was much finer this morning, and it was hard to reconcile it with the severity of the weather event that occurred last night. I think out on the coast we caught only the edge of the storm front(s) that swept through yesterday afternoon and evening.

We made ourselves a self-catered breakfast which we were able to enjoy on our verandah before re-packing the truck to head north over the Great Dividing Range. Before heading north, though, we drove along to the mouth of the Snowy River. It was a bit difficult to see the actual point where the river enters the sea as there were few lookout points and the ones there were, were a bit overgrown with trees.

Not to worry, Bernie unpacked his new toy – a drone – to capture some bird’s-eye views of the Snowy River’s mouth. Bernie had been hoping to fly the drone without spectators but, unfortunately, there were a few other tourists AND locals about who were quite curious about the drone and keen to watch and ask questions. This was the first time that Bernie had flown the drone seriously as, to date, he had only been practicing in the park near home. He was a bit nervous about having an audience, but managed to launch the drone without incident, take some photos and, most importantly, land it safely!!

One of the locals mentioned that the river was still looking very clear this morning but, come lunch time, would probably be roiling with flood waters coming down from the Great Divide after last night’s rain. I guess from past experience the locals know how long heavy rain in the Snowy’s catchment area takes to reach the sea.

Driving out the Marlo-Conran Road we spotted the sign for the Snowy River Coastal Walk. In the hope that we might be able to see the mouth of the river from the walking path better than we had been able to see it from the roadside stops, we parked the truck and headed into the bush. We walked as far as the Lovelock Lookout where we took a few photos and learnt that the mouth of the Snowy River has moved several times over the years following natural and man-made changes to the flow of the river.

From Marlo we drove along the coast towards Cape Conran where we stopped in at Salmon Rocks before taking the road to Cabbage Tree Creek. Back at the Princes Highway we turned left towards Orbost as we were hoping to take the C612 (Bonang Road) over the Great Dividing Range. At this point our feeling was that the worst-case scenario would be if we had to back track and then continue to Cann River to take the Monaro Highway.

Arriving in Orbost we stopped at a bakery to buy some fresh bread rolls to go with the leftover Christmas ham that we had in the car fridge. It was only quarter past twelve, but the bread racks were almost bare! We were standing in the queue and a customer in front of us purchased half a dozen rolls leaving only three rolls on the shelf! Fortunately, no more bread rolls were bought before we reached the head of the queue.

With our rolls in hand, we drove back to Forest Park to eat our lunch in a more scenic location than the main street. The park is right beside the Visitor Information Centre, so we stopped in to check that the road to Cooma is open after the storm yesterday. We were told that the road is bitumen all the way and we should be OK to drive through to Cooma via the Bonang Road.

There was very little traffic using the Bonang Road, so we enjoyed having the route almost to ourselves. We crossed the border at Delegate and continued on the Delegate Road (still C612) until we merged with the Monaro Highway (B23) near Bombala. At Steeple Flat we turned onto the Snowy Mountains Highway (B72) which took us into Cooma where we booked into the Nebula Motel after a quick stop at the local Woolworths for a few supplies.

Returning to the car after checking in Bernie noticed something shiny in the front, driver’s side tyre. Damn! Closer inspection revealed that we had managed to pick up a roofing screw in the tyre. On the plus side there was a Tyrepower shop literally straight across the road from the motel. We’re not sure what it is about NSW road trips, but this is the second time that we have had a nail/screw in a tyre when we have been in country NSW! Hopefully, if Bernie takes it across the road first thing tomorrow morning, we can have it fixed quickly and proceed with our plan to drive across to Thredbo for the day.

The weather was fine all day but looked threatening again around dinner time. The Cooma Ex-Services Club was our closest option for eating so we decided to stay close to the motel in case of rain. When we headed back outside after dinner the weather wasn’t too bad, so we decided to take a walk around town.

I would like to be able to say that we enjoyed a lovely, peaceful walk around Cooma BUT the corellas prevented that! There were dozens (hundreds even?) of these horrible noisy birds squawking in the trees and carpets of tree bits underfoot from the corellas destructive shredding of all the street trees.

The plan was to walk enough to achieve Tracey’s Move goal (Bernie is not quite as obsessed!) BUT inexplicably, Tracey’s watch failed to record our perambulations around Cooma??! For the second day running it was a tick for Exercise, but a bit short of the Move goal.



Steps: 10,569 (7.13kms)

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