Jindabyne, New South Wales, Australia

Jindebyne, New South Wales, Australia                           Wednesday, March 1-7, 2018

Leaving the Rocks, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sydney, where the Queen Elizabeth was docked, Larry and I took a cab to the car rental shop in Darlinghurst.

From there, we drove south on the M1 going through multiple tunnels to reach the main highway to Canberra, the federal capitol of Australia. It took us 8 hours to reach Jindebyne, our destination ,known as the Alpine playground of Australia, around 7:30pm.

                                                              Our home away from home

                                                The view of Lake Jindabyne from the veranda of our condo

We enjoyed hiking around the lake....

         and spotting some of the native birds...so exotic to us...cockatoos were everywhere.

                                                             Yellow Crested Cockatoos

                                                                        Galah

Not sure what this red breasted beauty was.

                                   While in Jindebyne we drove up to three ski resort areas.

                                                      The first one we visited was Thredbo.

We drove on past Thredbo to find....

                                                   lots of curvy roads....

                                                      gorgeous mountain views and...

                                                          clear water streams.

  On  another day we drove to Perisher Valley...another ski resort.  

                                                Emu crossing....where? Didn't see a one!

We drove into Kosciuszko National Park to touch the roof of Australia, the highest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko. Driving on the opposite side of the road is challenging, at first.

                                   What a nice sweeping road leading to Perisher Valley ski resort.

At  cool and breezy Charlotte Pass we hiked...

up the mountain...

                                to view Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia.

   Snowy Creek....this area is known for the two Australian films, "Man from Snowy River"(1982) and "Return to Snowy River"(1988).

                    Returning from the mountain ride we captured a gorgeous view of Lake Jindabyne.

               Several days we walked around Lake Jindebyne enjoying all the southern Aussie birds.

The lake had many spectacular views with crystal clear water.

We had a good tour of the local fish hatchery. Huge trout were swimming around in this pond for visitors to feed.

One of the streams that the trout are released in. A nine month process takes place from the time the eggs are fertilized until released.  A million baby trout are released every year. 

                              One evening we went up into the national park to watch the kangaroos.

The Aussies look at us as crazy for wanting to go see the kangaroos…but for us Americans, seeing these little critters is pretty exciting.

                           This mother roo  was carrying this big, big baby roo in her pouch.... it was obvious that it was time for him/her to be out of there.  It was a big burden for her to move...didn't see her hop any.

                                       Running out of room....it's leg didn't even fit down in that pouch.

           We were thrilled to have tea and muffins with our Australian friend Bob.  

A great week exploring the mountains of Australia as the sun sets on Jindebyne. Onward we go.