Saturday, May 25, 2013

Thursday 16th May 2013 Koskiuszko Mountain Retreat - Jindabyne - Smiggins, Perisher and Charlotte Pass


Upon waking, we made coffee, rugged up then took a walk around camp in daylight. Each campsite is nestled into snow gums and not cramped in side by side, and sites for vans or trailers have a little semi-circle to drive straight through. We are sited right next to an amenities block that we have all to ourselves.

We headed into Jindabyne to stock up on supplies, and get some information from National Parks on whether finding the source of the Murray is viable. It seemed the easiest way would be from the Victorian side, and would require 4WD access that we weren't really prepared to do alone. We got much better advice from an adventure store that seemed to indicate getting to Mt Kosciusko would be a better option with snowshoes from Charlotte Pass, a shorter route than from Thredbo and didn't involve purchasing a lift pass either.

We then went for a drive up to Smiggins, Perisher and to the end of the road to Charlotte Pass. All these ski resorts have snow, but are not open yet, and we got to see where we would start the walk to the mountain.

Back to camp mid afternoon, and we did the short 3km Sawpit Creek walk, prompting the very important question of "what scat is that?" LOTS of roo and wallaby poo, and the disconcertingly large wombat poos that require very careful foot placement. While we didn't see any wombats, we did see lots of wallabies and roos. There are either only a few wombats that only poo on the track, or lots of them that just go anywhere they damn well like.

With almost no wind, we then bought a bag of firewood to set up a fire just outside the camper. We were visited by a couple of a little too friendly possums which we did not want to attract to camp. We also discovered a shot of Bailey's in a chai latte makes for a very nice nightcap.

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