While I am still working my way through the last two (or three) countries in my SweetChilly blogs, I wanted to take the time to post some photos from a couple of weekends away I’ve managed this year.

Without too much planning I booked 2 nights in Jindabyne, with the idea of spending a day in Kosiuszko National Park in between. I drove down towards Cooma and stopped off for some lunch before taking a detour to Adaminaby.

It was freezing and blowing an absolute gale next to the dam. I didn’t spend too long there before jumping back in the car and finding a back road heading towards Jindabyne. Middlingbank Road is a really pleasant drive through green fields.

The one thing I didn’t count on in Jindabyne was most of the restaurants being seasonal, and being closed since the last week of September.

Day 2

I set off towards the national park, hoping to find a walk to a waterfall. Unfortunately Google Maps did its thing of trying to drop me as close a possible to the end of the walk, which is not where the walk starts. Regardless I enjoyed the drive through the park until I came across a walk, Rainbow Lake.

The ground was still very wet from the rain the last few days. I am glad I put my actual hiking boots in the car.

I was carrying my backpack with a few lenses, but had my new Olympus 300mm with the 1.4x teleconverter on my camera around my neck. Despite being the equivalent of over 800mm on a full frame camera, it is an incredibly versatile setup, with remarkable close focus capabilities.

At the end of the walk was Rainbow Lake. The creek coming off the lake was flow quite fast, and was too wide for me to try and jump with several kilograms of camera gear.

After a few minutes of photos while trying not to put my backpack on an ants nest I turned around and headed back.

Back at the car I managed to work out where I thought the Waterfall walk started. Part of the walk was closed, but I headed off on the section that was open. Walking slowly enough I could hear a bunch of birds, but never saw any.

Back in the carpark I managed to spot a pair of yellow-faced honeyeaters darting around, could have saved myself a walk.

After lunch of a pie from a bakery back in Jindabyne and offloading all my photos from the morning onto my laptop I packed my drone and cameras back up and went for a drive around the lake.

I really enjoyed flying the new Mavic Air 2. It is so fast, and so strong in any wind. In all my times flying it I am yet to get a ‘high wind warning.’ The camera is also really good. The quality of the 4K video is fantastic, and so are the still images.

I drove back up the hill from the lake before being distracted by trees in a field and stopped for some photos on a dirt road.

Day 3

After breakfast at the hotel I packed up and set off towards home, again following my nose, looking for backroads to follow and things to photograph.

The roads were relatively busy with motorcyclists enjoying the nice weather and scenery. My first stop was for trees in a field.

I took a slight detour stopped near a field when I managed to spot a kestrel hovering, looking for a feed. I think I confused a local who drove past me in a ute while I was steading myself by leaning on my rear windscreen pointing a large lens in the air.

I started heading back towards the north, and managed to find a backroad that cut through some fields. I had to give way to a camper van coming out of the side backroad, they looked very pleased to be back on tarmac.

I found an nice open area with some interesting looking trees and pulled over.

I kept following the road around and end up near Adaminaby. I had tried to find a detour down to the Eucumbene Damn but I had ended up a private road with a swipe card access for a holiday village, and a closed gate near a public camping area and decided I should start heading towards home.