Today saw us in the youth hostel at Thredbo¹ at the foot go “Mt Kosciusko².” We arrived here yesterday in the midst of a violent electrical storm and a torrential down-pour. Today dawned rain-less but cold, windy & unsettled. We took the chair-lift to the top of the Ski-field then climbed into the teeth of a bitingly cold southerly gale hoping to get a glimpse of the Big “K”. Swirling mist & cold prevented us seeing anything but it was worth it to get into the high basins again with clear running water and cold swirling air. The top of the field is like the high basins at the head of the Hewson & Phantom³. We descended to the restaurant at the top of the lift & sat in the warmth drinking red wine while the wind screamed and a few flurries of snow fell. When the the weather cleared a bit we took the chair-lift back down & spent the rest of the afternoon in the pub.
¹ Thredbo is a ski resort in the Snowy Mountains of southern NSW. The Snowy Mountains, made famous by the AB “Banjo” Patterson poem The Man From Snowy River, are a series of rugged ranges in the south-eastern corner of Australia.
² Mount Kosciusko (pronounced “koz-ee-oss-ko”) is Australia’s highest mountain. It is a modest 2,228 metres (7,317ft).
³ The Hewson and Phantom Rivers are on Dry Creek Station, Linda’s home and the place where I had spent the previous two years working as a shepherd. The high country of the Snowy Mountains obviously made me nostalgic for the big open basins in the ranges at the head of these rivers!
CurseOfTheTraveller 