John and Pam's Snowy Mountains Tour

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I had been thinking about a long touring drive in our ‘79 MGB for some time and with my daughter’s pregnancy about to take her off on long leave, we were running out of time to get away for a break. The south coast of NSW is always a great drive and as we pored over the maps a rough itineraty evolved. We would follow the coast to Pambula where my grandfather had been gold mining and then on around into Victoria to Lakes Entrance. Then onto Bairnsdale and up The Great Alpine Road to Albury where we would overnight with friends and then back through the Snowy Mountains and home.
Monday the 1st November saw us on the
road by about 9.30 with the top down and fingers crossed that the rain wouldn’t
happen, wrong, we ran into drizzle at Heathcote but with the heater and and keeping moving we kept pretty dry. Stopped at Berry for coffee and put the top up as the drizzle continued. Leaving Berry our next stop was Bodalla for a few photos then on to Central Tilba for coffee and cake. We visited the Cheese Factory and sampled some of the cheeses. Lovely little town in very picturesque countryside. After Tilba Tilba we turned off the highway on to the tourist drive through Bermagui, Tathra and stopped fpr the night at Merimbula. The motel recommended we try the local Oyster Farm/Restaurant which was only a couple of clicks down the road. Not cheap but good food and the restaurant was a delight, lots of old timbers and panoramic glass walls. Tuesday we set off to Pambula where we looked up some old family headstones and then on towards Lakes Entrance. A late call was to visit Mallacoota which is about 30 klms off the main track. What a lovely spot that is. Plenty of camping grounds, right down to the water and appears to be a fisherman’s paradise. Heading on we reached Lakes Entrance where we get a late lunch. Wrong ! Melbourn Cup Day and at 2.30 in the arvo, this is not the place to be looking for a feed. Everything was closed except the pub and their bistro was closed. Bugga ! So on to Bairnsdale for a snack of fish ‘n chips. We planned on Omeo for the night but were unsure of accomodation and road conditions. Anyway the young Chinese fellow who ran the Fish ‘n Chips said the road was good and should be plenty of accomodation as it is a dormitory town for the snowfields in winter.
What a great road for the MG, curves curves and more curves and the area is so picturesque, just beautiful country. We made Omeo in time for a light meal at the pub which was next door to the motel we chose (can’t help bad luck) . There we met a group of guys doing a similar cruise by motorbikes. From Omeo we took the Omeo Valley Road until the turnoff to Falls Creek and now we were really getting into the High Country. One long stretch saw us climing in second gear and on this stretch we got up to 1760 metres, again beautiful vistas, snow in the distance, rivers running below the road as we followed the river course. Once again we had the top down most of the time to get the most of the view although we were driving through cloud and drizzle lots of the time. When we came to large snow drifts near the road we stopped for photos ane Pam just had to trek over for a handfull. Falls Creek was little disappointing , didn’t seem to have any Snowy atmosphere but it may largely be a day ski area. Leaving Falls Creek for Mount Beauty where we stopped for lunch. Once again the countryside just takes your breath away, magnificent vistas and everything emerald green. From Mt Beauty I called our friends David & Judy Balfour and warned them of our looming arrival. Before dinner we all went for a drive to see the Hume Weir overflowing sending water into the Mighty Murray. The Hume reservoir holds 6 times the water of Sydney Harbour when it is full as it is at the moment, something that hasn’t been seen fore some years. After an enjoyable dinner and sitting round telling lies it was off to bed for our next stage over the Snowy Mountains again. Swinging around the southern shores of Lake Hume we headed for Corryong (home of The Man From Snowy River) where we stopped for lunch at a really nice old bakery cafe. On the road again through even more beautiful countryside until an oncoming B Double tanker moved off onto the gravel and sents a cosmic shower of satellites our way and left us with a chip the size of a 20 cent piece on the passengers side of the windscreen. Next town was Khancoban which was a town built for the Snowy River Scheme. I had landed there many years ago and it had any interesting approach, letting down over the dam in a spiral before lining up with the runway, over the dam wall and then a quick drop to the strip.
Once again we were really in the High Country, every few miles you would come to another sign advising of winding roads for the nest 37 klms. From Khancoban it was over Kosciuzko to Thredbo, now that is a fascinating alpine village. Through the mountains it was cloudy and drizzle but we kept the top down until we reached Jindabyne. heading north from Thredbo we started to pass large numbers of motorcycles heading south, coincidently we passed a friend of my sons who I contacted on our return (he fixes windscreens). He had seen us near Cooma and thought ‘I know that car’. Thursday night we stayed at Capital Country Holiday Park in a cabin and went the the Eagle Hawk Hotel for dinner where we had the Stone Grilled eye fillet steaks, superb. Friday morning we headed up to Bowylie which is Dick Smith’s property just south of Gundaroo. Next April we are holding our 3rd Large Scale Model Aeroplane Rally here once again and all the MEG members are invited to come down to see the largest Scale Model Aeroplane get together in Australia. Dick’s property alone is worth the drive down to see.
After stopping for a short visit we hit the road again for home but took the long way as I like to do, Bungendore, Taralga, Lake Bathurst to Goulburn then off the freeway to Robertson and Macquarie Pass and up the coast to home. In the 5 days we travelled 1900 klms, used 180 litres of E10, one litre of oil, averaging just over 30 mpg or 9.3 L/100klm. Molly didn’t miss a beat the whole time, and impressed us with her touring ability. Now to plan the next one !

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