Time for another episode (4)of Caravanning with the Kelpie aka ramblings from the road.
I’m now north of the border with Victoria – a drive from Khankoben. K-H-A-N-C-O-B-A-N. Lakeside Caravan Park to Crookwell – not far from Canberra or Goulburn. One of many historic towns dotted about the rich farmland sitting high on the Great Divide. It had its beginnings supporting agriculture – the potato industry in particular. Now there’s wine (of course) beautiful gardens, historic buildings, wind farms and a lot of sheep.
It’s a decent distance from Khancoban to Crookwell and I was wary of the drive. GPS and and the map apps are invaluable tools but relying on a route that is labelled ‘the shortest’ can mean trouble. I found out the hard way last year when I blindly followed apple maps on to Berry Mountain Road only to encounter ‘This route is unsuitable for caravans’ when I was too far in to turn around. Apps and artificial intelligence don’t necessarily go together and you can really get caught out, particularly, towing a caravan that’s reasonably large. I have a handy hard cover paper Caravan Parks around Australia in the passenger seat.
I was quite happy to leave Bright – which is no reflection on Bright itself . It’s a bit like Hastings Street, Noosa only in the mountains. Peace and easy access is in short supply at NRMA Big 4 camp in January. It’s packed and noisy – there are I discover, many caravan parks in the vicinity where the view from the van is much more desirable. A shoutout to the servo on the corner – selling the cheapest diesel in the country. $1.60 a litre. With hundreds of thirsty 4WDs incarcerated in the camp, they are raking it in.
So the route from Bright to Khancoben involves a heap of turns. I do mean a heap of turns. Ultimately and eventually we ended up on a piece of dirt road – not ideal. The route went through Myrtleford, a lovely town, well worth a visit – along the The Valley Highway, skirting around the edge of Wodonga before the turns really ramped up – a lot of lefts and rights and rights and lefts taking me basically along the Murray River which was fine but a much better option would have been the Murray Valley Highway instead of the river road. Even though it’s not very far from Khancoban, 25 kilometres of rough dirt is quite testing. Just after this cute one pub town on the mighty Murray called Jingellic. Here we stopped with only another hour to go. An hour on a rough dirt road.
A review of Khancoben -without a doubt the best thing is the caravan park , perfectly situated on Khancoben Lake. There’s a pub, there’s a chemist. I think there’s a couple of food places that close at 4 o’clock. But the actual campsite itself, or caravan park, is just lovely. The nicest setting that I’ve had so far. The most up to date amenities. It is sparsely populated; many moved when fire got going near Corryong. Put simply follow directions to evacuate, or risk getting stuck because the roads close.
A wind change over night is a reminder that the fires are still burning. It’s a really, really smoky morning and with Khancoben being the closest town to Kosciuszko Alpine National Park (originally built to house workers for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Project ) I decide to tackle the 57K drive to Threadbo. You don’t just go past Kosciuszko – the road winds up and down at least 3 different major mountain ranges ; Granite Knob , Mount Townsend, Mount Tempest as well as Kosciuszko. 57 k of hairpin bends. Up and down and up and down. Recommended drive time two hours – but I’ve never been to Threadbo so push on …… made it unscathed – but it’s a national park and dogs are prohibited. There’s lots of stuff going on – chairlifts are running so kids big and little are doing mountain biking and and all sorts of dare devil activities. Certainly a really attractive resort. I feel a cold coming on and not really relishing the thought of the trip back down the mountain so we head off. There’s not very much open – most ski resorts shut over the summer months.
Goodbye Khancoben you are on the return list, I was careful about the route, heading for Crookwell . Up the road from the dog sitting on the tucker box and Gundagai. Through 2 really lovely towns worth a longer stop. One was Tumbarumba and the other was Batlow. Then you head up through Tumut well, you bypass it – as you do most major towns. From there on to where I am now – Crookwell.
On my pre-departure check at Khancoban, a problem presented itself in the form of no left indicator. Not only not safe but illegal. Yass was the best option for assistance and courtesy of cyberspace a couple of options presented. Found a really lovely guy at JB Auto; I had to buy a new plug, but he didn’t charge me for his time to sort the cable – I thought that was great. Plugged it in and had lights. I’m not convinced about the indicators but let that wait till tomorrow.
Update on indicator. A combination of help from Neil the technician at the van company and Tony the wind farmer (yes they do exist) camping on site appears to have resolved the problem.
It’s totally freezing . And it’s summer? On to Dungog tomorrow!
