Wednesday 11
December 2019 – 279 087
This morning
we drove to Charlotte Pass. Today’s
goals were to see snow, climb to the highest point in Australia and hopefully
find some snow to touch. The Summit
Track and Main Range Walk are recommended to be done in an anticlockwise
direction; we walked it clockwise as I had previously done it anticlockwise. I
would agree that anticlockwise is nicer and less tiring on the legs.
We took the
Summit Track to the top of Australia – the summit of Mt Kosciuszko. We decided
to do this long walk on our first day here in the hope that Drew and Hayden
would get to see and touch snow before last week’s snowfall melts. We could see plenty of snow on other ridges,
but the first snow near the path was as we crossed the Snowy River. Hayden was very excited! He thoroughly enjoyed making, and throwing,
snowballs – possibly at his parents!
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| Australia's Top Toilet |
Rawson’s Pass
has Australia’s “top toilet”. On the way
to the summit we had to walk through snow – cold, wet and slippery. Learning to walk on snow was a new experience
for all of us. My conclusion was to take
smaller, more vertical steps. From the
top of Mt Kosciuszko, you could see the layer of smoke settled in the
surrounding valleys.
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| Seamans hut |
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| Layer of Smoke |
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| Anemone Buttercup |
To return to Charlotte Pass we took the Main Range Track. We need not have worried about the snow
melting away before we had the chance to see it – we had to cross around a
dozen snowdrifts, up to several hundred metres across. Our snow-walking skills
improved with practice. The most recent snowfall was still white, but the older
snowfalls had all gone a pinky-brown shade from the ash in the air. Not surprisingly on some parts of this walk
it was extremely windy.
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| Lake Albina |
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| Blue Lake |
We detoured to Blue Lake and
Headley Tarn – beautiful! We could hear an incredible number of frogs and found
a large patch of tadpoles near the track.
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| Blue Lake |
 |
All up approximately 25km in 9
hours, with plenty of ups and downs; but all our goals for the day achieved.
On returning to our campsite we had a brisk and refreshing
wash in the snowmelt that forms the Thredbo River before dinner and bed.
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