Saturday turned out to be the highlight of the holiday. Varied weather: sun & heavy fog. Switched to skis. Exploring with Jemma,
Having been so clapped out Friday night, decided, in the middle of the night, to swap to skis.
Two main factors:
A) I was exhausted.
B) A key purpose of the trip was to be social with Jemma.
Early in the morning, called Rhythm Cooma to see if I could swap to Skis and do the swap at Smiggins. After some deliberation they said yes but that I may have to pay a changeover fee. Collected names of people I'd talked to.
Figured that would be OK and less than hiring from Perisher.
Morning ritual includes a hot shower to try assist muscles to wake up and making wraps.
We managed to leave our accommodation at 6:45 and arrived Smiggins about 7:00 (need to check times)
Rhythm Smiggins opened at 7:30 and I hobbled over.
They gave me skis, boots, poles and said no charge and to keep the board because it had to be returned to Cooma. They also mentioned that they don't normally do this. But they did.
The day stated beautifully And Jemma and I warmed up with a couple of runs down front valley.
We observed the queue for the quad express had reduced to sensible level so headed over. A few runs from mid station down and then we took it right to the top. Observed the top of the pretty valley Chair so did one last run to the bottom and then took it back to the top.
About now the fog rolled in and we made our way to the bottom of pretty valley with almost no visibility. Stopped for a very nice hot choc in the hope that the fog would clear. Unfortunately it had set in and we spent the rest of the day skiing with only a few metres of visibility. Several runs down pretty valley with no perspective.
Skied across to the interceptor.
Noted zero snow as we rode pleasant valley chair.
Took the home run back to Perisher. That's not an experience to repeat. Could not see a thing. Lots of walking for poor Jemma. Finally, exhausted, we made it back to front valley. Decided to check out "the pub". Only one food vendor open and purchased a beautiful plate of chips with BBQ sauce!
A rum and a scotch (in separate glasses) for me and a couple of alco ginger beers for Jem.
I took the bus back to Smiggins to retrieve the car.
Bought Jemma Night skiing.
Arrived back at the pub to find a small group of people clustered around watching the soccer on Jemma's phone. Transpired that the hotel TV's were giving grief.
The fog cleared and night skiing was awesome.
At 8:30pm we finished up skiing and trudged across to "the man from snowy River hotel". This was full of life. TV's showing all sorts of stuff. Fire cracking and a band playing. All three of us had a lovely dinner with beer or ginger beer depending on the person.
Home to bed
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