Whilst standing around for 10 minutes he sees something
swimming in the water. When it decided to come up for air and take a dive Mark
realises it’s a platypus. Leaving his
camera on the lake side he comes up to me like a child who is very proud of
himself, to tell me his story. I head
back to the lake with him but I unfortunately did not see the platypus.
Waking up in such a beautiful place on Christmas Eve we
decide to stay put for one more night and go for a walk up mount cobbler. On
our route with founds some beautiful flowers, saw some amazing views and Mark
had a close encounter with a Tiger snake. Which I didn’t realise was there and
nearly stood on. As a result by the time Mark came on it, it had curled up
ready to attack. All I know of the event is a high pick scream from Mark and
orders to keep walking FAST and HEAVY in foot.
At the top of Mount Cobbler
Back at camp the evening was spent swimming in the lake and drinking wisky with our neighbours around their camp fire.
Mount Cobbler
Christmas Day
After a fantastic breakfast cooked by Mark, we packed up camp and hit the road once again.
However we didn't get very far, before our first obstacle of the day was in front of us. After some very stong winds the night before a tree had fallen onto the road. We sat and looked at it for a while wondering how on earth we were going to get around it. We came to the conculsion that we would have to head back to the campsite and see if there was anyone who could help us. On our return to camp we found one group of campers left at camp. On our approach to them I remember thinking this man looks like santa. We explained what had happened and asked if the group would be able to help us.
A Santa look alike approached us and calmly said “ no
worries”, he has a chain saw in the back of the Ut. Mark explained to him that
the use of his chain saw would be fantastic but he was worried about his own
abilities to use one. Once again Santa said “no worries I am a arborist and my
daughter is training. If you don’t mind that he uses the opportunity to teach
his daughter he would be happy to help.
Feeling like Santa had just given me the best present I
could ask for I replied “no worries”. We get back in the car and show them
where said tree is. It turned out that they were going to use the same route
later, so they would have had to cut the tree down later anyway. Anyway after a
45 minute lesson on the safe way of cutting a tree down with a chain saw, the
road was clearer and we thanked Santa and his elves for their Christmas present
and continued on our route to Dargo.
On
our route to Dargo, we travelled along the Alpine Way and the Dargo high plains,
taking in some breath taking views, my favourite being at Danny’s Lookout.
We arrived at our evenings camp one hour before sunset. Just before our arrival we got a flat tyer. Which meant that Mark needed to change the tyer before it went dark, as a result this meant I had to put the four man tent myself. Which was a little challenging as I struggle at the best of times to reach the top of the tent. Any how by sun set camp was set up and our evening meal (Christmas dinner) of kangaroo steaks, boiled potatoes and veg was cooking and we were enjoying a nice chilled glass of sparkeling Shraiz, thanks to our new portable fridge. Once dinner was over we introducted ourselves to our one and only neighbours for the evening and spent, lets say a very interesing and brilliant christmas eveing enjoying Aussie company around a camp fire.
I have to say that it has to have been one of my best christmas days and was one I will never forget.
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