The road less traveled

Many years ago after a long road trip across Australia we thought we'd take a scenic route back through the Snowy mountains on our way home.

Winters are not that severe in Australia and the worst we had encountered were a few showers of rain visiting friends in the capital Canberra. When we left we made our way out through the hills through winding roads and forests by scenic lakes until we saw the sign "Snowy Mountains Highway"  which would take us quickly through to the Victorian state border.

We drove speedily on the highway for a few miles until we approached a sign blocking our path "Vehicles must have chains beyond this point"  the sky was overcast and snow was falling lightly but clearly it was heavier ahead. 

We had to turn around to find an alternative route and luckily there was one going miles out of our way on a narrow winding valley road with eucalyptus trees bent right overhead dripping with recent rain 

As we drove slowly along in drizzling weather wild animals shuffled about in the undergrowth and as we went deeper in the valley and rounded yet another hairpin a Lyrebird which we had never seen in the wild before appeared walking purposefully at the side of the road and weren't we glad we had taken the road less traveled.

Image found at www.backwardinsights.blogspot.com