CFP Retreat - Blue Waterholes

The annual CFP (Climate and Fluid Physics) retreat, formerly known as the GFD (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics) retreat saw us venture into Kosciuszko National Park - destination the camp ground at Blue Waterholes. Leaving Canberra around 4pm on Friday afternoon, we were joined by Luwei, a PhD student from Hobart who is being co-supervised by Andy. Luwei happened to be in Canberra for a workshop and on hearing about the weekend she extended her stay to join the group and experience her first ever camping trip!!

Despite being only 80km southwest of Canberra as the crow flies, the drive to Blue Waterholes is much longer. We opted for the sealed longer (190km) route while Adele and Morgan's car headed for the significantly shorter (100km) back country roads. Although long, the drive was easy although we were a little concerned after passing Adaminaby, the rain poured down. Thankfully the front was heading away from our camping spot.

As the girls boredom was coming to a breaking point, a small group of brumbies huddled on the side of the highway provided some much needed distraction. We paused to take a few photos! A short distance later, we turned off the smooth bitumen road on to Long Plain Road for the bumpy 30km final segment. By now it was just after 7pm and we were all keen to be there already!






We discovered Kial and Kelsey who were mostly sorted with their tent up with a roaring fire at Cooleman Mountain Campground about 5km short of our destination. Turns out that the Bluewater holes campground, both the upper and lower areas, were already full! As we too began to organise our stuff and put dinner on, Adele and co rolled up. They had encountered a few locked gates in their 100km shorter trip!