Day 6 - Jindabyne - Dalgety

Friday 12th February 2010

After yesterday’s hard ride I woke at 8am to the sound of heavy rain outside, so went back to sleep for a couple more hours. It was still showery so I had a bit of a wander around Jindabyne shopping centre checking out all the ski shops, then when the rain eased off a bit more I rode along the bikepath around the lake and saw the impressive memorial to the explorer Strezlecki, who first named Mt Kosiusko, Australia’s highest peak, which is nearby.

Lake Jindabyne bike path.

By about 1130 it was dry so I set off heading east towards Dalgety along a very quiet, gently rolling road. This is the Monaro high country, characterised by natural grasslands at an altitude of around 1000m. It’s very open country and a prime area for sheep grazing.

I reached Dalgety, about 35kms away, at 1.30, crossing over the Snowy River via a historic bridge. Dalgety is now a very small town with a pub, a garage and a post office/café, but strangely it was once under consideration to become the Australian national capital, before Canberra was decided upon. At the time of these deliberations, a century ago, the Snowy was a mighty river, however following the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme, a huge project providing electricity and irrigation water involving the construction of a series of dams diverting most of the flow to the Murray and Murrumbidge systems, it’s now little more than a stream:

Dalgety's Post Office and Cafe

Since I’d not had any breakfast, I enjoyed a very nice trout salad at the local café. Unfortunately while I was there the rain started again, much heavier this time. I waited until about 4pm at the café waiting to see if it would stop, but no luck. I knew that there was nowhere to stop before Nimitabel, some 50kms away and part of this would be along a dirt road, I had no lights and knew I wouldn’t make it to Nimitabel before dark, reluctantly therefore I decided to stop in Dalgety, the only accommodation being in a caravan park on the banks of the Snowy River which had some fairly basic cabins. At least there was a pub nearby, so I settled in for a quiet evening, hoping that the weather would improve enough for me to make up the lost distance tomorrow.
Total distance covered today (including the ride around Jindabyne lake) - a disappointing 40kms.