I had at one point wanted to do Alpine Way from Jindabyne back into Victoria. But each time I looked at it was a bit more worried about its narrowness, and the fact that I'd left travelling to that area a bit late into the autumn. I needn't have worried about the weather aspect as the temperature was around 17-20ºC for my three days travelling.
Just outside Canberra on Bobeyan Road.
Instead I decided to explore the Snowy Mountains Highway from Adaminaby to Tumut.
Putting Adaminaby into maps from Holt suggested two routes. The Monaro Highway out of Canberra and Bobeyan Road.
Bobeyan Road looked sealed for a little under half its length and then a dirt road for the rest.
I got slightly cold feet, wondering what sort of condition the other half was as I'd read some mixed reports of it. And reading some more some forums suggested that it was driveable and was still a road, not a 4x4 track because it was graded regularly.
The only vehicles aside from a truck that I saw on the dirt road portions of the road were Toyota Land Cruiser utes.
The sealed parts of Bobeyan road are lovely, you could take a sports car along this route, it's a fabulous run of sweeping curves, straights and elevation changes, it's a thoroughly enjoyable drive with wonderful views and everything. There were one or two points where road work was going on, including a bridge being worked on.
Then the sealed road just stops.
There was some road work happening where it stopped, and there the road was very rough.
Even though I had enough traction I needed to stop and put my ute in 4x4 mode to feel safe because the road was incredibly rough and full of pot holes. The proclamation online that it was graded regularly did not seem true.
Now reading into it, looks like it's being fully sealed.
There's several spots along the way both the sealed and unsealed portions of the road where there's walking tracks and look out points. I only stopped at Hospital Hill lookout and had a look, took some photos, it was amazing landscape to look at.
The worst roughest part of the road is through the Namadgi National Park.
But then even as you exit the Namadgi National Park there are still hazards. There's cattle grids across the road which are only as wide as a gate. There are several down hill parts of the road which are somewhat precarious with a nice view down the hill, with only multiple eucalyptus trees to stop you if you somehow veered off the road.
Then as the road opens out into more fields and more indications of civilisation and I started to relax a little more I came upon a puddle.
Reminded that despite the dryness around me it had poured with rain last night, and this puddle was more like a small pond of water.
The level indicator beside it didn't indicate a huge amount of water, although in hindsight I perhaps should have tried going around it then powering through.
Thankful of my ute's decent water wading capacity I plowed through with only a large amount of water being thrown onto the windscreen, but no worse for wear I continued on.
The road then does become sealed, like a lot of country roads where the sealed section just seems to end there seemed to be no indication of why the road stopped being sealed where it did, but I enjoyed the sealed road. It was smooth, long straights and gentle curves.
The Adaminaby Racecourse was interesting as I approached it, noticing the grander buildings first and then the somewhat overgrown racecourse next.
Bobeyan Road finishes at an intersection with the Snowy Mountains Highway. Turning right I headed for Adaminaby.