Long weekend in lovely Jindabyne

Jindabyne, near NSW's Snowy Mountains, is a charming wee town. It has a resident population of only around 2000, but becomes much more crowded during the ski season. We just arrived back in Canberra after three nights there. For a tiny town, there are plenty of attractions!

On Saturday we drove to Thredbo (a ski resort), took the chairlift (wheeeeeee!) up the mountain, and walked back down. The walk – quite steep in places – was about four kilometres, and good fun. Our legs are still a bit achy, two days later ...

Fungi spotted while walking down the hill

Saturday night we dined at the fabulous Café Darya in Jindabyne. Café Darya offers authentic Persian cuisine, and we've been there on several visits. Once again it was a fabulous feed. We shared some roasted capsicum, ground walnut and pomegranate molasses tapenade served warm on Turkish bread, then for our main course had khoresht-e-odack (duck cooked in an apple, ginger and saffron sauce scattered with caramelised apple slices and topped with pickled red cabbage and fresh leeks) and gheime-e-shotor (wild camel pieces in a chickpea, fennel, radish and chilli sauce) and Persian-style rice. (Sorry, no pics – it was quite dark and the camera phone wouldn't have done the food justice! It did look very elegant though.) We had a tiny bit of space left for dessert and tried some Persian fairy floss. Yummo. A tip for new players ... it is a good idea to make a booking if you're planning to go to Café Darya, as the restaurant is tiny and the staff turned away a lot of hopeful walk-ins on Saturday night.

Update: Saturday 4 April 2015

We went back to Jindabyne and back to Café Darya. Still hugely popular and still spectacular! (Though Andrew was disappointed the camel had disappeared from the menu this time.) Here's a photo of our Persian fairy floss, which was delightfully garnished with rose petals and pistachios ...

Sunday was a more relaxed day. We started with a leisurely breakfast at Parc Café (formerly known as Sublime), next to the Snowy Region Visitor Centre. She had:

Eggs benedict with smoked

salmon (yes,  I know I'm predictable!)

while he had:

Parc baked beans with poached eggs,

crispy chorizo, and a side of bacon

All very delicious. We also wandered along the banks of Lake Jindabyne, where there was a sculpture exhibition. I think this dude was my favourite!

The mini caravan was pretty cute too:

Last but not least, on the way back to Canberra we stopped in at Birdsnest in Cooma. All roads lead to Birdsnest it seems ... people kept asking whether I'd been there yet, so it's good to be able to finally say yes! They do have a magnificent range of clothing for sale, and a very whizzy system where you can stand in a changing room and order items to try on, using a tablet computer. (Oh, and if you're reading this somewhere other than Canberra or its surrounds, Birdsnest has a very lively online presence too.)