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Published: August 9th 2009
Falls Creek
Cross country Skiing weekendAfter the trip to Alice Springs we had a couple of quiet weekends relaxing and getting kit for our YHA skiing trip (at the end of July). We now have lots more stuff to pack / sell but we'll worry about that in a few months time! The highlight of this couple of weeks was probably heading to the local pub to see England's victory at Lords...very entertaining...though the landlord was threatening to charge me more for my beer for being a pom!
We both worked half-days on the Friday before the skiing weekend so set off for the long drive to the snow in the early afternoon. Apparently there are some snow capped hills within a couple of hours drive of Melbourne but they aren't very reliable (lower altitude) so we were heading 4 or 5 hours or so to Falls Creek where almost a metre of snow was waiting for us. We grabbed a lift with a couple of other YHA skiers so most of the journey was spent chatting/snoozing...an enjoyable Friday afternoon! Having stopped for dinner in a nice country pub we arrived at the lodge in a town called Mount Beauty just in time for an
Falls Creek
Cross country skiing weekend early night. There were 50-odd people coming on the trip, staying in two dorms in the lodge...pretty basic but it certainly did the job.
We started bright and early as the accomodation wasn't on the mountain so there was a 45 min drive before we could get on the skis. We were in a group of a dozen or so beginners so Saturday morning was largely falling over / learning how to waddle along / finding out how to stop (the first and last of those often went hand in hand!). By the afternoon we were feeling more confident and were led on and off some more remote tracks buy our leader (an experienced skier on the trip who kindly volunteers to share his knowledge with the less fortunate!). Great fun - the highlight probably being Caroline's top notch fall - she got one ski in the deep snow and one on the nice slippy track...the result was a face first plunge into the snow (she came up laughing so no complaints!). The cloud / fog began to roll in so we were glad to be led around by someone who knew where they were going.
We arrived
Falls Creek
Cross country skiing weekend back at the lodge to a dinner prepared by the husband of one of the skiiers; he hates skiing so comes on the trip to read the paper and cook for us - what a star. Then another fairly early night (everyone was very tired) Sunday was spent doing some more touring around the mountian. We skied over a dam wall and followed the shore of a lake which was all very pretty. By mid-afternoon we were all aching enough to call it a day, grab a hot drink and begin the long journey home...via another nice country pub for dinner of course!
Oh, just looked at the photos I've uploaded. The odd one out at the end is a picture of Caroline's desk which had been decorated in her absence with pictures of the Queen...I think there's always good banter in her office. All the better at the moment after England won the second test in the cricket.
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