Up into the mountains

 First up was a personally delivered perfectly brewed coffee delivery to our room from offspring no.2. A unique way to start the day and one that will certainly be remembered for a long time. The company was fabulous and as she headed of to WFH (the covid driven option these days in these parts) we kicked the well oiled packing machine into gear and then headed off to a local nursery to gift some greenery to her new abode as way of thank you and dont forget about us as you continue your maturity journey.

The Canberra suburbs in this area are strikingly green, well kept, well planned and appear to be almost utopian as a result. One could almost settle here, however one would need to live in the shadow of the previously described metaphoricals and indeed exist purely because of them. A juxposition that many locals probably don't consider and just get on with their symbiotic livelihoods and vote according to their needs. Thus democracy remains strong.
Time enough in our political bullseye and we left behind the beautiful land of wierd dreams and strange ponderings and set off up into the mountains in order to clear our heads and check out the high plains.
The drive up the valley through Cooma to Jindabyne is extremely picturesque - the highlight being the rocky plains - we arrived at the destination expecting cold and got warmth.

It's actually warmer up here than down in the place we just left. More weirdness to run away from. This town is defined by the lake. Indeed it exists because of the lake. The original town is actually somewhere in the lake. Somewhere along the way the engineering went slightly astray, shown by recently installed playground equipment as well being actually in the lake.

Walking around the town one gets the sense it's here for the skiers. This is based on the fact that pretty much every shop sells ski gear. However the senses start to get seriously distorted when most cars are carrying mountain bikes, there are rows of mountain bikes lined up on the footpaths, there are bikes being ridden everywhere, we even spotted a huge group of kids doing some sort of after-school mountain bike class in the park by the lake, surrounded and guided by their obviously mountain bike riding parents. Short little legs peddling furiously in their lycra coverings trying to escape though the carpark with dad cleverly rounding up from the outside like a kelpie not letting the herd get out of hand.
The place has gone mountain bike riding nuts. Probably made worse by the introduction of E-bikes which allows all shapes, sizes and ages get involved. The visual of a significantly overweight MAMIL gliding effortlessly up the hill past us was almost enough to drive one back to the bar to get another Kosciusko Pale Ale (direct from vat to tap!).
Feeling out of place (i.e. wearing jeans in the heat, not having mountain bikes) we left the foldups in the boot and instead planned the evenings festivities.
Apertifs were held on a balcony overlooking the carpark, beyond which was the fabulous views of the lake with the surrounding hills forming a framework upon which the clouds slowly built their complexity of rain making structures in the colourful sunset.

The perfectly planned booking for dinner was pretty much upset by the restaurant swapping our prime positioned table for two with a table for ten that subsequently blocked our serene views of the lake with jeans covered behinds and loud innane conversations that got louder and more inane every time a jeans covered behind delivered a new drink to the seat it subsequently landed in.
Leaving as quickly as we could we stopped off at local establishment 20 meters down from the accommodation and thoroughly enjoyed their home produced products in the tin shed surrounded by happy souls partaking in the extraordinary efforts of 3 flat out hosts.
Tomorrow we hit the high plains (we are so close you can almost feel them).