Victorian Road Trip

School holidays are back again! We spent the first week travelling through Victoria.

Our first stop was spending the weekend at Wagga Wagga where we ran in the Oceania Sprint Champs at Charles Sturt University. All of the family placed 6th in their respective age groups except for me (8th). We were all relatively happy with our runs. Katy was particularly nervous beforehand knowing that she wasn't going to be shadowed on her course but she coped just fine.

Sunday's event, the Australian Long Distance had us driving an hour north to a property on the outskirts of Cootamundra. I really enjoyed driving through the canola fields! Today's race saw the majority of the family climb the ranks to place 4th in their respective age groups except for Ella who dropped a bit down to 11th. It was a hot and hilly day out in the terrain.

On the way back to Wagga Wagga, we investigated the Junee Chocolate and Licorice Factory along with a hundred or so other orienteers. Numerous treats were consumed and various ones purchased to be consumed later on in our trip as we continued further south.

New Aquatic Family Members

Introducing 4 new goldfish. Apologises for the poor photography!!

Goldie - black and yellow one
Dragonfly - orange with white tail
Pearlie - white and orange one
Jazzy - black and orange one

They seem to have settled into the bathtub pond nicely.

Shout Out to Snowy Mountains Backcountry Tours

It was an early start to the morning in order to make the most of the snow conditions. Temperatures had dropped overnight re-freezing the snow however the forecast of a warmer day meant the snow would deteriorate quickly by early afternoon.

Having received rain the previous night, we were greeted by open gates on the Guthega dam with lots of water tumbling into the river below. A sight we hadn't seen before. Skiing down to the dam wall was a little treacherous with the icy hard snow but I survived without incident.

After walking across the dam, it was time to put our new found knowledge into practice. The skins were easy to attach to our skis and we were quickly on our way up.

We snaked our way up to the top of Guthega Trig. The skins were absolutely amazing and we soon found ourselves at the top with some blue sky!

Time for a break and snack at the trig while chatting away. From here we skied down a beautiful slope into Falls Creek. The snow was deep and soft thankfully as I stacked trying to negotiate turning in these natural non-groomed conditions! It was very cool to see our own tracks carved into the hillside. A quick transition at the bottom meant we were climbing back up to the trig. We practiced our V-A-V turns and then our kick turns. Cath won the trophy for most flexible!

   

At the top after another transition (we were getting good as these!), we skied dropping slightly lower into Falls Creek through the snow gums. The terrain got a bit too steep and tricky for us here - we were all out of our comfort zone. However we scooted a longer traverse across the slope and eventually made it into the creek where we stopped for lunch.







Feeling refreshed, we made the final climb out of Falls Creek over the ridge of Guthega Trig. With the skins pack away once again in our backpacks, it was a very long traverse back to the dam wall. The sun was warming the snow up, turning it into slush and combined with the tiredness creeping in we struggled at times during this part of our journey. Glad to have reached the dam wall we had one final climb up to the carpark to complete our tour.

Our introductory tour to backcountry skiing, was fantastic. We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The seed of backcountry touring has been planted. Perhaps it's time for us to  investigate the purchase of new ski gear which will allow us to do another trip next winter....

Chicks Weekend Away

Al was the driving force behind our ladies back country snow tour. Planning was relaxed - we had decided on the weekend and booked in with Snowy Mountains Backcountry !! Although we'd planned on just having a girls weekend - the families (or parts) were potentially coming whereby Andy would take all the kids skiing while we did our ladies tour. However this all hinged on Ella's netball finals journey. Turns out they not only made the finals but caused an upset by taking the win!

So it was back to Al, Cath and myself on the tour. As the date drew closer the weather forecast began to go downhill. We left Canberra late Friday afternoon calling into Straightline to hire our touring skis and boots. Unfortunately although they were advertised to be a lot cheaper than hiring at Rhythm, they lacked actual stock. There was only one set of tech touring skis which was way too big for any of us. Then in the frame binding skis, they had 3 sets but again all too long except for me. In the end we hired the only 3 sets of touring boots they had which miraculously were three different sizes and mostly fitted us! It was a little disappointing but at least we had the boots and knew we could hire skis and skins off Doug at Snowy Mountain Backcountry. Finally we were on our way - Al and I were in the front chatting while Cath was in the back on her phone and computer having a work meeting!! We hit the national park as the sun had set and lots of animals were out and about. Our headlights caught and thankfully not the bonnet; 3 deer, a wombat, a few wallabies, and a stunned possum sitting in the middle of the road as we made our way up to the lodge.

Al whipped up a quick pasta dish which we washed down with a glass of wine before settling down in front of the fire for the evening.

Saturday dawned. Our tour was postponed til the Sunday due to the windy and possible snowy conditions. Mid morning we wandered down in the light rain, to Doug at the Guthega centre for our safety briefing as well as the hiring and setting up of our skis. We were all prepared for an early start the next morning. With the poor conditions, we opted to save our money and not hire skis for the day instead hanging out at the lodge! Without any food for lunches, we headed down to the Burning Log for coffee and food. Being the end of the season the place was completely void of people - the coffee machine had been turned off but there were three Moroccan veggie filo parcels and freshly cooked hot chips. We leisurely consumed our food before being politely asked to leave in order for the place to close for the day! Meanwhile the sky outside became a dirty red colour - the result of a dust storm. The colours against the white snow was stunning.

Finishing on a High

Ella's netball season also wrapped up with a little more excitement. In their competition the top four teams play the finals round where in the first weekend 1st vs 2nd and 3rd vs 4th. The following weekend the loser of the 1st vs 2nd match plays the winner of the 3rd vs 4th match. The winner of this match plays the winner from the first weekend match.

As it happened Topcats finished 3rd on the ladder, so they played against 4th. It was a great match with the Topcats winning and progressing to the next round. The following weekend they lined up against 2nd (a very rough team) and were behind nearly the whole match until the last few minutes when they scored an equaliser bringing the score to 12 all! Andy found the scoring role interesting and slightly stressful especially when the other parent from the opposite team lost concentration and missed one of the Topcat's goals. The game went to extra time where the Topcat's dominated the play winning by a huge 6 point margin. The other scoring parent was clearly rattled remarking to Andy that Topcat's were going to get smashed in the grand final!!! Some parents attitudes are unbelievable - it's kids sport get some perspective!

The grand final weekend arrives and the Topcat's once again perform at their very best causing an upset and taking the win. They were all pretty stoked with their efforts!

Ell'a first season of netball has been a success. She has throughly enjoyed the switch from soccer and learnt heaps along the way. She is interested for signing up to play for Aranda in an after school comp in term 4.

Soccer Season Wrap Up

The season wrapped up for Katy's soccer team - the Belsouth Under 10 Tigers. With the focus on improving skills while having fun, there are no finals played at this level. Katy had a wonderful year playing with this great group of girls (and their parents too!). We concluded the season with a relaxing team bbq at Lake Ginninderra. Hopefully we shall see some of these faces in the future whether it be at soccer or athletics or somewhere else.

Below are the team photos - unofficial and official!!

More of that White Stuff

Andy just can't get enough of the white stuff! With a work colleague visiting from Sydney and the snow conditions still awesome, Andy took the opportunity to return to Guthega for more back country adventure!

Early in the week the weather forecast looked fantastic however, as the days ticked by it slowly deteriorated to possible snow showers and windy conditions. Despite this Andy, Paul and Suemi committed and drove up on Saturday afternoon, hoping for a break in the weather on Sunday.

It was gusty and snowy on Saturday night making Andy wonder if they would get out for a ski at all. The morning dawned still but cloudy. Andy decided to play it safe, rerouting their journey to remain closer to Guthega in case of a white out and headed up to the trig on top of the Paralyser.

As it happened, as the trio reached the top, sunshine broke through the clouds and the day suddenly became bright and beautiful. Taking advantage of this, they skied down to Illawong, crossed the Snowy river at the suspension bridge and climbed towards up Mt Twynam.

Time constraints meant that they couldn't make it to the summit, instead skiing down into Pound Creek and climbing Mt Tate East Ridge. The clouds had begun to descend once agin, so they were happy to have turned towards home. Andy watched with trepidation as Suemi cooly skied across a natural snow bridge over Guthega Creek. Having safely made it to the other side, the boys both followed!

Andy was pleased to have shown his Canadian friends some Aussie back country ski terrain on this 12km loop.

Losing Bijou

Returning from our skiing trip, it was back into the usual school / work / sporting activities..... except that Katy got sick so missed a few days of school.

Unfortunately on Katy's second sick day, Ella woke up to find Bijou, her beloved budgie had died overnight. She was so devastated. The night before Bijou hd been super interactive and cuddly and Ella had been immensely impressed with him.

After pouring out her grief for losing Bijou, we found a nice spot under the magnolia tree to bury him. Ella decided that going to school would be a good distraction and so I dropped her off mid morning.

Katy had perked up a little by the time I returned and we made a photo collage dedicated to Bijou and placed it on Ella's bedside table.

It's a difficult path in life losing your first pet and we hadn't realised how much of an impact this beautiful little blue bird had made on Ella in the 4 months she had had him. She survived the day at school and returned home once again bursting into tears at the sight of Bijou's grave.