I've just returned from a great weekend in the Snowy Mountains. It was soooooo nice. The first day was bright and sunny, yet pleasantly cool. An easy walk into a place called Mawsons Hut.

There were two families with us, one had a young son (10) and a daughter (12) and the other had two daughters (6 and 8). Well, once we got there, I had wandered down to the river side and was laying on a nice patch of grass... minding my own business (as I do) and suddenly I was bombarded with young fingers wriggling at my belly and tender sides to try and tickle me! It broke out in to an all out tickle fest! I had kids attacking me from all sides, grabbing limbs, trying to restrain me, jumping on my back, they were everywhere! At long last I managed to outlast them and was able to get a few tickle attacks back and found they were quite ticklish themselves, so their plan of attack was their own weakness.

The night sky was clear as a bell. I hung out of my tent with my sleeping bag for about an hour and a half with my binoculars just stargazing. I had to hold my breath as I gazed because otherwise I'd keep fogging up the lenses. I thought I saw Saturn, but I couldn't hold the binoculars still enough to keep it from shaking in my view to tell if it had rings or if that was just from the shaking. Once I bundled in and settled down to rest I fell asleep right away, but was awoken at times in the night to a very strong wind trying to blow the tent over. Fortunately, I had read the direction of the wind right while setting up the tent and it didn't become a huge kite, picking me and gear up and whisking us off to another part of the Snowys.

The wind and grey clouds continued on throughout the next day (Sunday) as we did our cleanup and care taker duties of the hut in the morning. We were teased with occasional patches of blue sky during our hike out, but that was quickly obscured again by the rapidly moving clouds. During our short lunch break, we felt the temperature drop significantly and snow was expected soon if it got any cooler. A few drops of rain hurried us along to finish our lunch and continue towards the cars. About 5 min after we got our gear stashed in the cars and started driving back down the dirt track off the mountain, the rains really started to come down! I'm sure by the evening, if the precipitation continued it would be snowing up there.

I saw some photos of that area covered in snow and it looks just magical. I'll have to be sure to plan a ski trip up that way this winter to see the white blanket of snow covering the soft rolling hills of the Snowy Mountains for myself.