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We left Canberra on Sunday morning and drove inland to the south through hills and rolling countryside and arrived in Jindabyne around midday. It is a lovely little town – just the type of place that you would imagine in a story book at the base of the mountains sitting on a huge lake, with quaint little shops and a couple of café’s with very little else.
Once we had ourselves set up we had a look around the shops and the information centre to find out about the walks in the mountains, before going for a walk around the lake back to base. We knew that we had a big day ahead of us so we lazed the afternoon away in Gloria Jean’s, which seems to be the place to go on a Sunday, as dozens of people continued to turn up and everyone seemed to know everyone else!
Yesterday we headed up to the top of Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point in Australia, in the heart of Kosciuszko National Park and the Snowy Mountains. It was a strange drive to the base of the trek, as we went through several of the ski resorts on the way, but without any snow there was an eerie atmosphere to the area, with only a few people out beginning the preparation for the snowfall. It was very odd seeing the runs without any snow on the as well, as it really brings home the fact that people are often skiing over bloody big rocks!
When we got to the start of the trek we stopped at the sign marking the entrance to take in the fact that we were about to embark on an eighteen kilometre walk up to 2,228 metres! We set off along the road and were soon passed by a maintenance van and were very tempted to jump in the back to take us along the first four or five kilometres, but we prevailed and continued along the road. The first few kilometres were fairly ordinary as we wound our way along a fairly even path around the range, until we came across the Snowy River at the base of the ascent.
The path continued through grassy areas and passed some huge rock formations and climbed steadily until we came across a small stone hut. We went inside to have a look around and found that there were two small rooms, one with a log fire and the other with some cupboards with super noodles and the like inside. The hut was built by the family of an explorer who died on the mountain in the 1800’s and is now used by people who want somewhere to rest or get stuck in an emergency, such as a blizzard.
We signed the guestbook and continued up along the road until we came to the final climb, where the road ended and the rest of the trek was along a small pathway. At the bottom of the path there were several vehicles and work machinery and we saw that they were constructing a toilet block all the way up here. There were several signs showing how the toilet block was going to work in an eco-friendly way and they even had a sign claiming that when completed it would be the highest toilet in all of Australia!
We set off up the path for the final couple of kilometres up to the summit and the path seemed to go on forever and every time we turned a corner thinking that it was the final part, we would come across another straight that took us back past the way that we had just come. Damn winding pathways!! When we eventually reached the summit there was a plaque about the history of the mountain and how it was named and a small mound of stones with a compass on the top showing the direction of all the nearby mountains. We stayed on the top for a few minutes taking in the views in the blustering wind before ducking behind some rocks for shelter whilst we enjoyed our hot soup that had taken the journey with us and contemplated the return leg. Although the views across the mountain ranges were pretty amazing, the area was not as spectacular as we had expected as we had imagined Mount Kosciuszko to tower above the rest of the mountains and be visible from miles away, whereas in fact over the course of millions of years it had been considerably worn away so that it is now actually smaller than many of the New Zealand Alps. We had also hoped for a bit of snow on the top but to no avail!
Realising that it had taken us just over a couple of hours to get to the top of the lookout we had to head back down a lot sooner than our feet would have liked and we were soon descending back towards the highest toilet in the land! The first part of the journey towards the bottom passed by quickly enough as we went back passed the stone hut and the snowy river and on to the level ground again. It was here that the walk began to take on a whole new level of drudgery as the road flattened out and continued down the featureless path from one kilometre marker to the next – another thing that began to grate on us as we ended up counting how many posts separated each of the markers in the hope that this would somehow make the trip shorter or quicker!
After what seemed like an eternity we rounded a corner and could see the end of the path that would soon lead us straight back to our car and the comfort of being able to rest our feet. It was with much relief (and also a fair bit of pain) that we took our trainers off when we got back to the car and set off towards the entrance to the national park, but our day was not over yet.
Once back on the main road we took another entrance back into the national park and drove along the Alpine Way for a short while until we came to Thredbo. The whole town sits at the base of the mountains and during the winter the place is rammed as it is one of the most popular and well known ‘ski in, ski out’ resorts in Australia where the chair lifts start just at the back of town. At this time of year though there were very few people about apart from the few that were manning the local shops in the town and cleaning up the tumbleweed that would otherwise blow across the street.
After a little look around it was time to head back to Jindabyne before our feet swelled up to the size of balloons and dropped off! Today we are heading to Eden on the southern coast of New South Wales to see if the sun is still hanging around near the beaches.
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