The Snowy Loop
24 November 2023 / Words: Rod Nicholas Photos: Rod Nicholas, John Chapuis, Peter Wilson, Simon Trickett
I’d been looking forward to this run for years, literally, kicking off way back in 2019. I was chatting with my friend and fellow Club member Ken Keeling (now sadly lost to us) about a ‘scenic drive’ I had seen marked on a large map adorning the wall of a dunny in Jindabyne’s Wild Brumby Distillery. (I had never stopped to wonder what other users of the facility might have thought about some old bloke hanging around with a camera, but that’s a different story.) Ken, of course, knew the route well, having led a run there a few years earlier. Within a couple of hours, he had sent me all his planning notes for The Snowy Loop.
I put it in the Events Program for 2020, but COVID put an end to that. The proposed run slipped back to the 2021 Program, only to end up stymied again. Not one so easily defeated, it was scheduled for 2022, but knocked out yet again, this time because one of the key roads had been closed due to a landslip. Other roads were closed during the winter season. Once more, with feeling, I thought, as I scheduled it again.
I planned several versions, along different but similar routes, all the time keeping watch on the very helpful Live Traffic website. My goal was to get a bunch of winding, twisting roads on the route, and the more twisties the better. This was going to be run for the drivers, and some beautiful scenery for the passengers (and any driver who had the time—and nerves—to glance away from the roads). Some weeks short of the run, all roads were opened, and I took the opportunity to do a reccie run of the full trip. Delightfully, all roads were in good to very good conditions, and the traffic was light. Excellent!
With the run date finally upon us, a good group of twenty participants in eleven cars assembled at the rendezvous. Day One, was to be a relatively short 200 km, up the Monaro Highway to Cooma, then through Maffra (a dot on the map) to Dalgety, once the proposed home for our nation’s capital. We split into two loose groups, with a few drivers taking the opportunity to ‘stretch the legs’ on the backroads over the ridges. Both groups met up at Dalgety, and gathered in shade of tall trees by the Snowy River, not so quietly looking for platypus and trout.
The Snowy River at Dalgety - no platypus sighting today
The next brief leg of the journey was to the Wild Brumby Distillery for lunch, then back to our digs in Jindabyne for some free time. Lunch was delicious (Maryanne enjoyed a veal snitty that was almost as big as the plate it came on), and a few ‘sample bags’ of the locally distilled produce were smuggled into the cars.
Our free time was whiled away in various modes; some walked the shores of Lake Jindabyne, or down to the local shops, some relaxed in their rooms, some even wandered up the hill to taste the wares of the Jindabyne Brewery (I can attest to the tastiness of said wares). Dinner at the local pub was another huge country feed, well enjoyed by all.
Day Two of the run was to be the day for motoring adventures; 355 kms, 5 hours of fairly intense, concentrated driving with lots of twisties on tight and narrow roads that featured steep, sometimes unfenced, drop offs. Our challenge was to avoid the Southern Sevens clubman car club, based in Canberra, who were intending to do much the same run as us on, albeit at a slightly later planned start. Sticking to our timing was important.
For safety purposes, we split into two groups again, leaving about ten minutes apart. The first stage was an easy run down to Adaminaby; a bit of highway to Berridale, then some open country road before we joined the Snowy Mountains Highway with its sweeping bends and expansive views. The roads seem to encourage right-foot pressure, but ever mindful of setting a good example for other road users, we exercised all due care and responsibility and arrived a little short of the hour Google maps reckoned we should take. Coffee and cakes were the order at the bakery, but the place was busier than usual (the races were on), and we lingered a little longer than expected. Group 1 left for Tooma, and my group followed a short while later.
Back on the Snowy Mountains Highway, after Adaminaby we turned left on Link Road and headed towards Tumbarumba. With the turnoff still a few k away, up in the distance I spotted a very large truck with a very large load lumbering in the same direction. My hope that it would pull over at the Kiandra Heritage Precinct was dashed and I watched (with a not so silent curse) as it turned into Link Road ahead of us. A short stop and photo op was in order, because there was almost nowhere to pass the truck if we got stuck behind it. Confident that it would not venture down our route on Elliott Way, we set out again … only to catch up with it—and another one of the damn things—after several kilometres of tight bends. Thankfully, a few slow minutes later we were able to pass both vehicles and continue our merry way.
Elliott Way - the more twisties the better
The turnoff to Elliott Way looks almost like a mistake—it is not particularly well sign posted and definitely the little brother of the track we were on. It is narrow and very twisty, but in remarkably good nick considering it had been closed for a couple of years. There was more traffic than we encountered on our reccie, but we were hardly bothered by it—they were almost all travelling towards us. Narrow roads and blind corners put a strain on the driver, especially the ones leading the pack, and more than once I wished for Superman’s X-ray vison. The radios got a bit of a workout with ‘oncoming’ and ‘obstruction on road’ crackling out every now and then. But the only incident of note occurred where the track takes us down into the valley for a river crossing. Leading, I was halfway across a short single-lane bridge when a large SUV trailering a boat blasted around a curve onto the bridge and skidded to a halt to avoid a head-on. A MXican Standoff ensued. I wasn’t moving, and for a moment or two it didn’t look like he was either. Then, very reluctantly, he reversed off the bridge and let us through. We waved and thanked him, of course.
Group 1 admire the Bridge to Nowhere
Onward through the hills we went, stopping a bit later at the memorial site for the Southern Cloud aircrash. Eight people, including the pilot and co-pilot died when the Southern Cloud crashed in the heavily timbered mountains on 21 March 1931. The wreckage was not discovered until 26 October 1958. This was definitely a spot that our mate Ken would have lingered at, so we honoured him and those who died with a stop. It’s a beautiful location, looking over the valley to the crash site.
Our lunch at the Tooma Inn was waiting, so we hopped back into the cars for the five minutes down to the pub. Group 1 had settled in already. The pub, which was built in 1879 from locally fired bricks and has survived floods, droughts, fires, and bushrangers, offered simple, but plentiful tucker. Fun fact #1: if just three politicians had voted differently in 1908, Tooma would have been the capital of Australia instead of Canberra! Fun fact #2: at the time of our visit, the pub was for sale. Owners Chis and Kris were off up north. It’s a great buy if you like a quiet country life.
The Tooma Inn - built in 1879
So, after that public announcement … our pub hosts were up for a chat and issued some sage advice: if we wanted to avoid several kms of crappy, rough dirt, we should change our plans. This vital information was heard by several members of both our run groups and ignored by more than one. I quickly consulted Mr Google, found that a small diversion added about 15 minutes to the return run, and promptly programmed it into the GPS. Off we went, on a slightly longer trip to the Pickled Parrot Providore in Khancoban, where we milled about a bit and closely examined the 3D relief of the Kosciuszko National Park area and the road back to Jindabyne that we were just about to test out. On our way into Khancoban, we passed a couple of police BMWs, and there were probably a few ‘nice that they’re going the other way’ thoughts bouncing around. I learned later that our Group 1 folks (who had endured ‘several kms of crappy, rough dirt’) had enjoyed the company of the gendarmes in the Parrot, with one of our group chatting pleasantly with the Sergeant driving one of the formidable vehicles.
Group 1 got to experience 'several kms of crappy, rough dirt'
Khancoban to Dead Horse Gap is a short 70 km, but this road is a blast. There’s up, down, up, down, up until it reaches 1588 metres, and throughout it all there are good roads, corners and bends galore and stunning scenery. I got into 6th gear twice and spent much of the time in 3rd and 4th, with a few 2nd gear hairpins as well. If you aren’t grinning like a side-show clown after this, you are a passenger! Please, if you haven’t had the chance to drive the Alpine Way from Khancoban to Dead Horse Gap, may I urge you to do so, and do it often!
Dead Horse Gap down to Jindabyne is a doddle, and my group was barely back at the Jindy Inn before the Group 1 folks started gathering around to find out where we were going for dinner. Options debated, we chose a short walk to the Banjo Patterson Hotel for pizzas and a few quiet drinks.
Day Three saw us all heading home. A few chose the quick and easy road down to Cooma and beyond, a mere 180 km. The hardy filled their tanks for a 400+km drive and prepared for a repeat to Adaminaby, followed by the Snowy Mountains Highway to Talbingo and lunch at Tumut. The roads were, once again, almost empty, and the trip into Adaminaby took a little less time than the day before, but our stop there was brief. We were needlessly held back a bit by some Snowy 2 vehicles, but otherwise the run into Talbingo was a delight with a solitary sighting of a familiar BMW and several close sights of brumbies to add to the happy mood. Talbingo was a photo op down by the Tumut 3 Power Station, but the news that our Tumut lunch spot was closed due to electrical issues had me scrambling for another venue. Tumut River Brewing Company to the rescue! The final stretch was the Hume Boreway home, and the less said about that the better.
Our long weekend away was a hoot, and I am delighted to have spent in the company of such wonderful people. Thanks go to all for your enthusiasm, to Ian and Carmel, who joined us from RPM Chapter and allowed us to celebrate their wedding anniversary and a birthday together, to Peter W and John C for taking lead on the several legs of our run, but mostly to our good mate Ken Keeling for putting me on to the run in the first place.
Was the multi-year wait to get it going worth it? You bet!
