2015 GFD Retreat

The now annual GFD retreat headed to the Snowy Mountains. The group of 20 this year consisted mainly of post grad student with a few families. By mid week, the weekend forecast was looking pretty abysmal - 13°C max and showers.

We left after school on Friday afternoon, driving into Kosciusko National Park on dusk. A little too early for the wildlife however we did spot a wallaby or two, a few rabbits plus a couple of wombats. We quickly made dinner and opened up the lodge ready for our guests to arrive. They did so in dribs and drabs over the next 3 hours.

Saturday dawned with grey clouds shrouding over our normally beautiful view of Mt Tate and the main range. Not to be deterred Andy convinced Craig to run a 15ishkm loop - to Illawong, up Mt Tate, crossing the Consent Stevens Pass, over Guthega Trig and then across the dam wall back to the lake. They picked up Alice near Illawong Hut who bravely continued on the rest of the loop with them.

Meanwhile back at the lodge, the girls played games and tried their hand at building card towers with Kate!

Post lunch (and once Andy had recovered) we walked down to the Illawong suspension bridge with Kate and Alice, first stopping to play and rock hop at Farm Creek. It was a walk with a variety of weather - initially cool before warming up and then raining on our return!

Sunday was another relative lazy day. Slow morning of playing games, building card villages and cooked bedfast for the girls, while Andy took Craig and Callum on a tour up the Paralyser (a hill top just behind the lodge).

We decided on a little walk before lunch to the far side of the river below the dam to the waterfall. Here we discovered the remnants of a bypass pipe diverting the water back to the dam rather than down into the river. We wondered if this was part of the Snowy River Scheme. Retuning to the lodge, it was all hands on deck to clean up and pack up the lodge ready for our return at Christmas!