the great dividing range- part 1
trying not to freeze in the river at our campsite |
so, we stopped for the night. we pulled into the platypus reserve and set up camp. i (honestly) sat out on the little platform for an hour waiting, watching the incredibly still water in the bombala river, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive platypus. i didn't see much, but boy did i freak out when i saw the small, v-shaped crest in the water with a small body driving forward. i shouted for john and in doing so scared the poor little platypus away (i saw one the next morning too, but it was the same deal. not much to see really. sadly).
platypus, for those who don't know, are very odd. in my opinion, it's like a beaver and a duck got drunk one night and woke up to regret it. according to the sign post, the platypus is one of only a few monotremes (it later says the only other one is an echidna. why not just say "one of two" i wonder?), which means that it's a mammal who lays eggs. which is so weird. the baby platipi are called puggles. puggles! anyhow, even in a platypus reserve, they're hard to spot and when you do spot them, you don't see much. they can hold their breath for 14 minutes and therefore don't really pop up all that often. they are waterproof, which is just cool really, and used to be killed (like all other animals) for their pelt, back in the day. i can't imagine wearing a platypus, but then, i don't eat meat either...
tree in the water, lake jindabyne |
after bombala, we drove to jindabyne, the small town at the base of koscioszko national park. the national park houses the main snowfields of australia, namely thredbo, perisher and charlotte's pass. jindabyne sits right on a lake and is only 45 mins from thredbo, the main hill in the park. the day we arrived, it was hot and blue skies. we sorted our renting kayaks and decided to laze by the first freshwater lake we've run into in a long, long time.
when we arrived at the kayak rental place the next day, sure enough, the wind decided to pick up rather intensely. but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless, and even did our "good samaritan" cause of the day, by alerting the rental company that some poor family good marooned on the beach (the youngens in the family couldn't fight the wind).
after our kayak adventure (in freshwater!), we made our way to the snowy mountain cookie company factory outlet to purchase some "imperfect" but perfectly delicious cookies. mmmmm. cookies. after which, we headed to the local microbrewery pub and watched the sun set over the lake before making our way back to our fantastic campsite for the night.
xo
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