Monday 19th March
The CO-PILOT has another day off today so we tossed a coin as to which area we were to explore. The area around Tumbarumba won the toss.
WOW! What an interesting adventure filled day.
We drove along the Culcairn – Holbrook road to Holbrook, turned north onto the Hume Highway to Little Billabong Road which became the Tumbarumba Wagga Road and followed this through Carabost, Rosewood, Glenroy and stopped for lunch at Tumbarumba.
Along the way we stopped at Rosewood where a park claims to have views of Mt. Kosciuszko. We have to trust that the views we saw were of that particular mountain, the highest in Australia at 2228 metres. What was more puzzling was the whitish wispy stuff streaked across the top. Could it be an early dusting of snow?
What is that wispy white stuff up on the mountains. A local Tumba resident thought it was snow!
It would not be unusual as I have seen snow falling in the snowy mountains in December – the middle of summer. (I was in the Army, December 1966 on exercises in the mountains around Cooma. I had trouble sleeping as my feet were cold. On daybreak when I emerged from the open ended honcho used for a tent, I was surprised to see this white stuff floating down through the tree canopy and settling on the honchos surrounding a central fire. It was my first sight of snow)
Next stop was at Glenroy where we visited the Pioneer Woman’s Hut and had a coffee.
Pioneer Womens Hut and Museum near Glenroy.
It is a volunteer museum made up of several buildings, restored and moved to the site.
Another museum at the Pioneer Womens Hut.
The old farmhouse also has a working commercial kitchen and a full dining room large enough to accommodate a bus load of people. The coffee was free and we had to make it ourselves but the baked slices were $1.
A cute steel cutout silhouette of the man, with his dogs, mostly responsible for the museum.
After an hour wandering the grounds viewing the exhibits we drove to Jolly’s Berry’s and bought a kilo of fresh picked blueberries. The CO-PILOT was in heaven. The owner gave us a guided tour of the workings within the packing shed and how each piece of equipment connected to another. Berries are placed in a hopper at the top. They are shaken stirred and de-twigged washed and rolled onto a sorting table before being bagged and boxed to be sent to Sydney.
The drive in to Tumbarumba, hereinafter called Tumba because that’s what the locals call it, was down a steep hill across a bridge then back up a steep hill to the centre of town.
The Union Hotel, one of several in Tumba.
A solid timber door at the Art Gallery shop in Tumba.
The town looks prosperous and there seemed to be lots of tourists wandering around. Just like us. We found the Four Bears Café (a bit hard to miss actually) and had lunch
The 4 Bears Cafe at Tumbarumbah
Biggest Bear inside 4 Bears.
A Bear Wall. It would have been easier to paint it.
More Bear stuff. The front counter was almost hidden by bears.
. The CO-PILOT ordered fresh baked Rainbow Trout which was very good. A quick walk around town and a visit to the Information centre and we chose two attractions to visit.
Paddys River Falls, is about 18 klms out of town on the Tooma Road or Snowy Mountains Highway. Due to the recent rainfall, the hills were alive with the colour green. The falls did not disappoint. The volume of water thundering over the 60metre drop was a sight to behold.
27/06/2012 at 12:51 pm |
what is the road like (lttle billanong) from the Hume to Tumbarumba, and what are the vikkages likle on the3 way
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27/06/2012 at 5:40 pm |
Hello Patrick, thanks for following and your question. The road from the Hume Hwy to Tumbarrumba is sealed all the way, a little narrow, many corners and quite a few hills. There are several small villages and all have pretty basic facilities although you can get coffee and something to eat in all of them. All in all I found it a pleasant drive.
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