Snowed Under

It has been many years since any of us have skied and the girls have only skied once before so we were quite happy to be testing our legs at the gentlest of skifields. Selwyn Skifields is a small resort with short wide runs. There are only 10 lifts and only two black runs. These conditions would be perfect for our less experienced capabilities.

The snow cover was excellent and every lift and run was open which is not always the case on Australian skifields. After a wobbly start while we found our ski legs we quickly got comfortable with the easier runs before tackling some of longer more challenging (for us) trails.

The next day it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. As we pulled in to the Selwyn carpark the first flakes were falling and by the time we reached the top of the first run it was falling steadily. Today was a test for all of us, having never skied in falling snow before. Skiing in fresh powder is very different to skiing on an established groomed slope. It's stickier and we found we had to change the way we skied to cope with the conditions.

Of course, falling snow means it is cold on the chairlifts. We had no idea how our mish-mash of old, borrowed, handed-down and hired clothing would hold up but on the whole we did ok. By far, the best dressed and warmest of us was my daughter who was wearing the handed down goose down lined jacket her uncle had worn while on student exchange in Norway 30 years previously. We had also been lucky enough to get four of the last five goggles on sale at our local Aldi store a couple of days before our trip. Those were a god-send!

Two days was perfect for us and we have vowed to not leave it so long before we go again.

Submerged

It's school holidays and we had nothing planned. The girls are quite happy just to hang out at home being very lazy or catch up with some friends watching movies. And then it snowed. It didn't snow near us but close enough that we could get there in a day. We hadn't taken a snow holiday in many years and the girls had only been on skis once before. So we decided to book a short break.

We had no particular destination in mind. The ski season had started late this year. The opening weekend saw no snow at all and the resorts were beginning to get a bit desperate four weeks later when a sudden change in weather coincided with the beginning of the school holidays. I jumped online and literally grabbed the first available accommodation that fitted our price range.

Talbingo is about five hours drive from our place and an easy 40 minutes from Selwyn Skifields in southern New South Wales. The town is little more than a tourist park, some cabins, a small country club, half a dozen shops and Talbingo Lodge where we would base ourselves for the next three nights. The original town lies beneath the lake that flooded the valley during construction of the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme. This old photo shows the original pub which now lies submerged beneath the lake. Another historic building lost to progress was the Lampe Homestead, the birthplace of acclaimed Australian author Miles Franklin.

Our accommodation consisted of a single room for the four of us with bunk beds. The bathroom facilities were shared and meals were taken in the downstairs bar and bistro. Most of the staff at the lodge at the time we stayed were young travelers. We met a mixture of English, Canadian and French nationals during our stay. Our host, Dave is very friendly and the atmosphere at the lodge is warm and welcoming. One word of warning, the bar and bistro serve the entire town so on busy nights it's a really good idea to get your dinner order in ahead of the rush. Our order went missing one night but the staff were extremely apologetic and presented us with a complimentary bottle of wine to make up for it.

Our short stay in The Snowy Mountains continues here.