A drive from Jindabyne through Bombala to Cann River, crossing NSW into Victoria at sunrise. The route winds through highland valleys and coastal forest, past kangaroos and wallabies, over a one-lane bridge and rough gravel sections. The narrator considers it solid motorcycle country.
Chapters
Gonna give you a little visual diary of the trip home from Jindabyne. This is coming across from Jindabyne to Bombala, and it's about 6:30 in the morning. You can see the sun is just rising behind us. It's overcast. I've seen 4 kangaroos already this morning, none of them underneath the car, luckily. We'll check in again in a bit. I'll just let you see some road. Just coming into the town of Dalgheri. Beautiful one-lane bridge. Turn left onto Berry Way. Coming down into another beautiful valley. Just a few k's out of Bambala, the sun is just coming up over the mountains. Just coming into Bombala, New South Wales. Here's a bit of the road between Bambala and Kan River. I will have to, uh, clean the window for you people. Next stop. There's nothing like a gum tree backlit by the sun. You can see one just up here on the right of the road. We're coming up, it's almost hanging over the road. See it up there above everything else? They just catch the light in a way that no other tree does. You can see along the right side here one of the ways that they stop the bank from falling in on the road. Build gabions of wire and then push push them into the side of the mountain full of rock. Pretty good strategy, keeps the foliage back as well. The road's just been washed by a little rainstorm and it looks so fresh and clean. Here we are entering Victoria. Catch the sign on the left. Believe it or not, you just passed from a holiday into a working day because in New South Wales it's Labor Day today, but in Victoria they're still laboring. Actually, it seems a bit strange, doesn't it? Should be working twice as hard on Labor Day if you're keeping it to its namesake. The condition of the roads aren't a statement about Victoria, are they? We're from beautiful back to potholes and, uh, gravel. Oh, there's a hole coming up. Look at that thing. Boom! You can see this would be a great road for a motorcycle, and I can vouch for it because I have ridden it once, and it was foggy though, really foggy and hard to see, but still a fun ride. Very windy, very hilly, and very open with very few other cars and vehicles, which is great. Beautiful forest coming down into Ken River, coming down off the highlands where it's too arid for trees to grow really, uh, and, uh, down in towards the coastal areas where even in Victoria it's very lush and green and beautiful place to live. There's somebody living the dream. We're almost to Can River. Beautiful countryside here, beautiful. The sun coming through the trees is just lovely as well. Well, it's 8:30 in the morning. I was really hoping to catch a kangaroo on camera for you, but, uh, this is about as late as they come out and then they go back underneath the trees and stay away from the warmth of the road. Um, I have seen one giant grey kangaroo this morning, couple rock wallabies on the side of the road, and a couple small grey kangaroos as well. So there's still a chance. Cross your fingers. Well, we've made it to the valley floor. Can River should be coming up very shortly, and then we'll have a beautiful mountain drive down into the lake's entrance area. Just coming into Can River.
