From the coast to Canberra via Brown Mountain

 Hello , had some light rain overnight - probably didn't last more than 5 mins though , and certainly wasn't enough to keep the dust down .
 Unfortunately it was pack up day , we will miss the peace and quiet of this park - but we can always come back and discover more treats that this area has to offer .
 Today we headed up the Great Dividing Range to Cooma then on to Canberra . The drive from Kalaru to Bega was easy , then to Bemboka was the start of the climbing - uphill , downhill , winding roads through the valley before the big climb came . We haven't driven this road for about 12 years and had forgotten most of it . There is a constant climb , lots of winding steep corners , through an amazing forest . The road is going to be closed from tomorrow ( Monday ) for at least a week , to do some major drainage work about half way up . The landcruiser handled it well , with the temperature gauge not moving from its normal running position , although we did have to go back to first gear on one section , there were a few opportunities to ease off on the side of the road and let the traffic behind get past - so we did . Finally reaching the lookout near the top , we pulled over and went for a walk , the temperature was a wonderful 14 degrees , but there is a great lookout and a 250m loop walk , oh , and a toilet .
 The view is looking out over Bemboka and the valley below towards Bega - on a clear day you can see the ocean - today however we could see it was raining where we had come from - fortunately for us , we had packed up and headed off before it started to rain , only getting a few light spits of rain further up the road .
 The gum trees stretched 30 to 40 metres above us - magnificent forest , tree ferns , ground ferns and a myriad of other plants & trees .

 While on the loop walk , an American tourist offered to take a photo of us , so we took up the offer .

 We jumped back into the ute to warm up - felt like we had jumped into an oven . Off up the road again , only to find that the climbing uphill continued for a bit longer yet . We got to Nimmitabel and saw the height above sea level was 1070m , then we kept climbing , up to 1110m , before levelling out , then slowly descending to Cooma , where we had some lunch , at a balmy 16 degrees with a wind chill of about 4 degrees - so it felt cool . 

 The clouds started to part and the sun was starting to warm things up - 24 degrees by the time we got to Canberra . There was quite a bit of traffic on the way to Canberra with a fair few idiots that couldn't wait for the 200m till we got to the overtaking lanes , so they passed anyway . Then there were the motorbikes that zoomed passed , then stopped , then pulled out in front of us , then stopped again , then overtook again - anyway we survived the dramas okay .

 We are here for a few days before heading back to Moss Vale on Thursday .

Cheers