The long way home

We are home again after a long-way-round trip that took in some of the most gorgeous scenery along the upper Murray, wonderful glimpses of the snow country and a marvellous walk around Yarrangobilly in the Kosciusko National Park.

At some point (the days are hazy) we decided to visit a camping spot recommended by our neighbours Jenny and Graham. It's on the Mitta River and rejoices in the unfortunate name of Pigs Point, but it's quite lovely and the river is flowing beautifully. We skulked around finding wombat holes and bemoaning the felling of a number of willow trees: we assume they've been cut down to reduce the amount of water being guzzled to the detriment of the flow downstream, so we weren't too dismayed.

On Friday, Chris took John to see a different GP (none of us having much faith in the about-to-retire 80-year-old whom John has been seeing). The new GP is reviewing the (staggering) number of different drugs John is taking, and seems to be on the ball. John is less troubled by the vexed signature issue, but is still having memory lapses. He agreed to let us buy a new mobile phone for him (we took a trip into Wodonga before the Pigs Point visit) which he is rather pleased with: the best thing about it is that it is next G so it works at the cemetery. This is quite a long way out of Tallangatta and therefore a really long way from anywhere, especially mobile phone towers. He visits the cemetery every day to have a chat with Marj. It's a sad, sad thing, but he likes to do it and now, if he has a fall or something, he'll be able to get help.

We set off for home on Friday after the doctor visit and decided to avoid the dreary Hume Highway for once, so we drove up through Granya to the Murray River Road and followed the river course to Walwa and all the way to Tintaldra, then north to Tumut through some of the most gorgeous countryside. They've had a fair bit of rain, by the looks of it, and the place is mostly quite green.

I wanted to see the Pine Mountain monolith which is said to be 1.5 times the size of Uluru, but of course it's mostly covered in scrub and bushes so it's hard to get an idea of it as a monolith. The countryside thereabouts is really lovely and the road is very good. We crossed the Murray at Tintaldra and headed north to Tumut. TUMUT is not only a palindrome, but with a sans serif face is also a mirror palindrome. I like that sort of thing.

Wonderful place names along that route: Welaregang, Welumba, Jagumba, Maragle, Tumbarumba, Courabyra, Wondalga, Wereboldera ... We stopped in the mid-afternoon at a lookout, and saw the great white mounds of Kosciusko and the high country in the distance. And a beautiful little flame robin.

When we arrived at Tumut in the late afternoon, we found a very comfortable motel quite by chance – the Tumut Motor Inn – and found ourselves surrounded by ALP apparatchiks and Mike Kelly, member for Eden Monaro, who was having a community day the next day. We got the last room in the motel! We had a good dinner at a restaurant called Jazz River.

Saturday dawned still, frosty and sunny, a perfect day for touring. We decided to visit Yarrangobilly to see the caves and the thermal pool, so set off south along the banks of Blowering Reservoir, past Talbingo and on into the Kosciusko National Park. Blowering is a huge dam, very picturesque, and does seem to have a fair bit of water in it, although the water level is far lower than the dam is designed for. We saw traces of snow along the way and were supposed to be carrying chains, but the roads were clear and the sun warm in a perfect blue sky, so I thought we'd probably be OK.

Yarrangobilly caves and guest house are off the main road down a narrow dirt road, but quite doable in a 2-wheel drive. We borrowed binoculars from the rangers, and set off on the caves-thermal pool walk. The main cave, South Glory, is really spectacular and very worth the trip.

There is a walkway lined with handrails and very well-designed lighting that brings out the weird beauty of the limestone formations. The special lighting is on a movement tripped, time-limited system, so you are walking along with the path lit by lights at floor level, and suddenly lights will come on, revealing a whole new vista of stalagtites, shawls, coral formation and other mysterious mineral eternities.

It's a big cave system but very spacious with some really large caverns, and it takes quite a long while to walk right through the South Glory. Such silence there is in a cave, save for the dripping of water in hidden pools. It was all rather Lord of the Rings-ish. Gollum and the Dwarves would have loved it. There are a number of other caves open to the public but you have to have a guide, so that's an adventure for another day.

The walk along the river to the thermal pool is a delight – quiet, pretty and easy walking – although getting down to it and then back up again is something of a challenge to those with difficult knees. The pool itself is warmish, clear as glass, and very inviting.

On the way home we passed through the Kiandra area which was completely blanketed with great gollops and quilts of deep snow – beautiful! It's an interesting experience to be driving gradually up into higher country, and you notice that the road markings have turned from white to yellow, and there are red snow poles on either side of the road. We passed through areas that had clearly had massive snowfalls, but the road was clear and mostly dry. Then onward via Adaminaby, a quick visit to Cooma and due north straight up the Monaro Highway to Canberra. Luckily the snow crowds were not travelling on a Saturday!

We arrived home at last, quite weary and glad to end the journey, late on Saturday evening.