Wednesday 31 August 2016

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

6 comments:

  1. The road less traveled can prove to be the best route, as in this case. Things seen would have been missed otherwise and the other route would probably have been less interesting. Sometimes what we think is an inconvenience can turn out to be beneficial. Nice post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Avid birdwatchers that you are! Makes the long trip worth ot!

    ReplyDelete
  3. While it might have been enjoyable to see and travel in the snow (but maybe not, we don't get much snow here, either, for me to know about that), seeing that bird more than made up for it i'm sure!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am often jealous of our feathered friends

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good things in life may not be planned but stumbled upon. It was a stroke of good fortune certainly,Robin!

    Hank

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1.That is one awesome bird.
    2. I hate to admit that I had no idea there was EVER snow in Australia....

    ReplyDelete