Tuesday 10th May, 2022

56.3k +720m
Moving 2:48, Elapsed 6:13
Max 64.4 kph, Avg 20 kph

There wasn’t really any need to leave early today with the ‘short’ hop to Adaminaby. Bonus – I could eat some breakfast in the daylight.

It might not have hit zero overnight, but it’s possible the ‘feels like’ did. Mic had also brought puffer vests, and I absolutely made use of one both last night and this morning!

It was getting on for 9am by the time we set off.

It got foggier and a bit wet as we got to the T-intersection and turned right onto Snowy Mountains Hwy at Kiandra. Yesterday afternoon we passed a road down to a Snowy 2.0 tunnel construction site partway along the road from Cabramurra, and this did feed some trucks onto the road past Three Mile Dam. Come the morning, the to and fro of trucks was in full swing. And then there was general traffic on the Snowy Mountains Highway, it being the direct route between Cooma and Tumut and the main east-west road in this area, so we expected a bit more traffic here anyway.

The Snowy 2.0 trucks were carrying tunnel-lining pre-cast concrete sections heading west and were empty going back our way, and they came in batches. We did pull over at one point to just let one lot pass.

We were familiar with this road, as, over the years we’d come out here a few times – for hiking and cross-country skiing. (In fact out beyond Cabramurra to Round Mountain.)

We had also introduced our three daughters to downhill skiing with a day at Mt Selwyn back in the mid-noughties. (The turn-off to it was actually back opposite Three Mile Dam.) It was a good family-friendly resort, good for beginners. Sadly it was burnt in the fires and is still closed. Some of the old buildings at Kiandra were also burnt.

Snapping back out of the reminiscing… Heading to Adaminaby along the Snowy Mtns Hwy there were still a few ‘bumps’ ‘to get over. And you’d have to say the conditions weren’t wonderful. Mic passed us at one stage.

He then stopped at the top of Sawyers Hill to take photos and another video.

That, and Connors Hill, a few k’s on, were the longest, but there were still some other pinches. Eventually, the bumps got less and less, and we could feel that it was, on average, downhill now through to Adaminaby.

We got there just after 11.00 and headed straight for the bakery for coffee and morning tea. And then lunch. It did feel a bit ridiculous to be having to kill so much time, but, given that we’d locked into doing the Bobeyan Rd detour, we just had to wait till it was nearing check-in time before we could head out the 11km to the Airbnb.

We had to buy food for dinner, breakfast, and lunch. We checked out the supermarket. Then killed some more time at the pub. Then went back to the supermarket to buy a couple of frozen meals (to heat up in the microwave), and something for breakfast.

Then we went to a takeaway shop to get some sandwiches made up. Thumbs up to the friendly owner and staff at Small Fry Takeaway, who were really interested in what we were doing, and went out of their way to package up the sambos so they’d be good for carrying and eating tomorrow.

We faffed around fitting everything in, and then finally headed off at 2.15. Bobeyan Rd was only 1km up the road. It was paved for about 8km, then we hit the dirt. (Better get used to it, there’d be a lot more of it tomorrow.)

Marta at the Airbnb came out to greet us with an incredibly effusive welcome. (I think she might have passed us on Bobeyan Rd). She showed us to the unit and then invited us to come over and have a cup of tea with her after we’d showered. We did that, and she was so gorgeous. She was kind of excited about the tandem as she and her husband owned one back in Europe. We talked about our trip, but also what had brought her from Europe to this little patch of Australia. It was her granddaughter Kiki who I had communicated with about the booking – and who had been so lovely about offering us the family unit. She was currently overseas. Marta was pretty excited about her special ‘Zero Birthday’ that was coming up, and about loads of family coming to stay to celebrate.

Marc did some work on the bike – adjusting the brakes, which he was a bit concerned about – and I got the fire going in the unit, which made it nice and cosy.

Our microwaved frozen meal – a McCains Pub Size Chicken Kiev each (sorry about the incorrect spelling of Kyiv, but that’s what the meal was called!) – turned out to be actually quite alright! Followed up by a microwavable self-saucing pudding! All the healthy food, not!

We definitely got lucky with finding this accommodation given the Adaminaby/Snowy 2.0 situation. Airbnb gets a bit of flack these days, but the personal interaction – and generosity – of the hosts here made it memorable for all the right reasons.