Day 81 - Monday 25th March 2024
Wide awake at 05:30 this morning, but no real rush to do anything today. Where I'm staying at Pure Chalet above the village of Thredbo they do a cooked breakfast included in the package from 07:30, so I was in the dining area updating my diary from yesterday (yes, I keep a written diary as well as the blog and vlog) from 07:00 with a much needed cup of tea.
Diary finished for the day, and a breakfast which included scrambled eggs with bacon, fresh fruit, bread and jam along with an Orange Carrot and Apple freshly squeezed juice. Absolutely fantastic; I'll look forward to a repeat tomorrow.
I had a plan for today; up on the chairlift and a wander out to Mount Kosciuszko Lookout about 2 km from the top of the lift. Then take the paths to traverse across the mountain to the gondola, and then take the gondola down.
So, down the steps to the village centre, and then I found the way to the lift stations. Into the ticket office to get my Scenic ticket (as opposed to a cycle one that the cyclists used to get to the top of the cycle tracks) and up the mountain on the four man chair lift. It just doesn't feel right getting on one of those things with no ski's attached! Up the mountain, and it was windy and I was glad of the fleece I'd put on.
At the top is seemed even windier, and I played with the idea of putting on my coat, but rejected that .... I figured that I'd be warm enough with the coming walk. A few pictures at the top of the chair lift before heading off on the Mount Kosciuzko summit trail; the summit was a 13km round trip, and I don't think my legs would be happy about that! The first half kilometre or so was on a stone path, but after that it changed to a raised metal platform, presumably to protect the land surface beneath.
The path climbed, and once again I enjoyed this part more than the descent. The metal platform wasn't great to walk on, but I persisted upwards until I reached the lookout I was aiming for. It gave a great view of the summit of Mount Kosciuzko, the highest point in Australia, and the path onwards.
I then followed some paths to a rocky outcrop where the views were stunning.
So instead I set off on the second part of my walking today. I found the start of the Merritts Nature Trail and started the descent under the chairlift; every step that I took a horde of grasshoppers were jumping out of the way. This path turned out to be very primitive; they had put steps in to aid with the walk, but that had been some time ago and they were in a poor state of repair. I carefully made my way down, keeping my eye open for where the Merritts Traverse branched off.
I somehow spotted a sign hidden in the undergrowth that Merritts Traverse branched off to the left down a gravel track, but at the junction shortly afterwards there was no signage, so I took my best guess based on the map. After about 20 minutes I found some workmen, so asked whether I was on the trail. It seems I was too low, and had to walk up a steep ski piste so that I was above the top station of the Gunbarrel Chairlift. At the chairlift I asked the attendant, and I was back on track, so I followed the very steep and gravelly track, eventually arriving at the top of the gondola.
They need to do something about both their signage and the state of the paths here; it's not an ideal situation when the paths are so poor, and the signage isn't intuitive ..... but it wasn't just me; the cyclists I chatted to were also getting lost on a regular basis because the signage for them wasn't ideal either.
Back down into the village, and I thought that my efforts had deserved a beer, so I found a bar for some liquid refreshment.
Then I decided that I may as well make good use of my lift pass for the day, so back up the chairlift to get some photos of the scenery with the sun in a better position. Then back down the chairlift, and the climb back out of the village to my accommodation where a cup of tea was called for.
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