Been
flat-out taken ‘er easy, although perhaps not quite as easy as The Dude might prescribe. As with last year, we saw in the new year at
Jindabyne. Unlike last year, however, we
skipped the new year’s eve 8hr enduro, on account of me still being roasted
mentally, and not quite knowing how to take ’er easy once a number is pinned
on.
Approach
was via the perfection of Tarthra, on the south coast. Superb sandy trails, wonderful ocean, lovely
hosts, and without the crowds that one accepts as the norm in Sydney. Mental note; transiting via Cooma was a good
idea. Also a good place to get the
twitch list going. White Headed Pigeons
everywhere and great Gull-billed Tern in non-breeding plumage.
Also
in contrast to last year, Jindy was cool and overcast, as apposed to being absolutely
roasting. New years day had the Mudge
(astride new steed) and I grinding up to Charlotte’s Pass, then via the dirt up
to Rawson’s Pass, just below the summit of Oz.
Unlike last year, this time we decided to clip clop our way up the final
spiralling 1.6 km path to the top. Windy
and cold! More clip clopping had us back
at the bikes where, with the weather fast closing in, we commenced the long
downhill run back to the bakery. We
weathered some high altitude drizzle before picking up some seriously funnelled
tailwinds which at one point had me hitting 78 km/hr; on the bit just below
Smiggin’s, of all places. Perfect
stillness and silence was momentarily attained as the wind and I matched
speeds, apart from the roar of the 29er tyres lashing the tarmac.
We
met for dinner with GK who, BTW, increasingly resembles Steve McQueen these
days. Day 2 saw us exploring the
excellent single track linking Jindy with the Tyrolean Village. This is the first instalment of what will
morph into a mega-trail round the entire lake.
Post pies and coffee we ground our way up the hill to take in the lovely
trails of Bungarra, site of the before-mentioned enduro of new years eve. The Gardeners Run to the top of the mountain
is an excellent new addition.
Day
3 saw us heading up the Thredbo valley where, post coffee, we threaded down the
lovely single-track which now nearly makes it all the way back to the
Crackenback Resort. Apart from putting
the finishing touches on some sections, plans are afoot to extend this trail
all the way to Lake Jindabyne. In short,
with NPWS and local land-holders on board, methinks that Jindy has the
potential to become THE go-to place for the fat tyres, and not just for the
gravity hounds. Can’t wait, as riding in
native wilderness is so much more appealing than the monotonous pine-scape that
dominates the ACT. On our last day of
riding, GK and I tackled the high plains of the magnificent Cascade track, wild
horses and all, starting near Dead Horse Gap, whetting the appetite for some
big back-country raids for future trips.
Birds. Despite being mostly in the more limited
confines of the alps, having started at the beach, the ticklist notched up to
107 species for the trip. Alpine highlights
included finally nailing Skylark and the telltale call of Stubble Quail – just
got to work out how to flush one now.
Lots of Brush Cuckoo calling higher up.
Bona fide Satin Flycatcher at the Thredbo River crossing, and the Mudge
got great views of Olive Whistler just below Dead Horse Gap whilst GK and I
were off exploring. Spied about 6
Latham’s snipe as well as Greenfinch in Canberra on the way home (and Dusky HE
at Coolum pre-Xmas!). The 4 new ticks
for the trip were a complete bonus, as I really wasn’t expecting anything new
this time round. It’s one of the joys of
birding - that you never know what you’re going to get.
Brain
explosion of the trip again related to my habit of dumping things on the roof
of the car when in the grips of getting onto a bird. In this case, what slid down the windshield
as we decelerated approaching a round a bout was not my binoculars, or wallet,
but my ipad! Fortunately it got tangled
in the fandangles of the windscreen wipers and was prevented from crunching all
the way onto the tarmac. Much like
Harrisons clock’s (see below), it is still ticking.
Before
leaving for home we caught up briefly with Dad and my sister in Perisher where
we got a tip (thanks Wally!) about a terrific exhibit playing at the National
Library; “Mapping Our World – Terra Incognita to Australia”. Hence, we dropped by on the way home. The penmanship and comments on many of the
exhibits (Flinders charts, in particular), has to be seen to be believed. The exhibit also has a cut-away working
replica of Harrisons H1 sea-clock, which for me was the prime draw card as I’d just
finished Dava Sobel’s excellent “Longitude”, as my holiday reading. Sobel’s book tells the story of Englishman
carpenter Harrison and the 4 chronometers (H1-H4) he spent most of his life
building (in the mid 1700s), which kept nearly perfect time at sea, and as such
served as accurate references to Greenwich time back in Olde Blighty. If you want to know why Britannia ruled the
waves, this is a big part of it. Knowing
a reference time (ie Greenwich), relative to local time at sea (based on the
date and rise of the sun etc), allowed sailors for the first time to accurately
and easily calculate how far east or west they might be relative to the
reference point. Knowing where you were
was kind of important if you wanted to avoid rocks, reefs and not run out of
food. A bloke by the name of Cook was
one of the first sailors to swear by the chronometer – and the rest is
history. The exhibit is free and runs
till mid March, and would be well worth the trip in its own right if that sort
of thing takes your fancy.
Alas,
like most holidays, this one has been too brief, and back to work I must go.
