Day 17 - Mar 10: We have decided to head towards Kosciusko NP on our way home and see if I can beat my jinx of not getting to the top of Mt. Kosciusko. Hopefully no snow, hail, storm or fire will put it off any longer. Three times I've been thwarted.
To get there, we have come via Omeo where we are camped tonight along the banks of the Livingstone Creek. We are in a caravan park but, as is often the case, if you don't need power you get the best spots. We have a very pretty little spot and I'm sure we will be lulled to sleep by the creek babbling away.
We continued on from Boolarra through country where there must have been big storms recently. So many large trees down. We passed through Traralgon and past a huge power station! I'm pretty sure it was part of the Loy Yang Power Station. I don't think I've ever seen so many power lines! They kept coming.
Needless to say, we didn't stay long but headed onwards to a free camp site just outside of Rosedale where there is an historic bridge that we could walk to. Morning tea done, we walked along a trail to see an interesting example of how a relatively modern bridge has been built to match the old. As you look at the first photo, the old bridge occupies the first two spans and the new one the rest. The same ferro-cement is still used - just with much bigger members that are made off-site rather than the smaller ones of the older bridge which have been made on site, layer after layer (see the second photo).
It was an interesting walk, but hot. Today is expected to reach close to 40 degrees.
We then headed to Sale and decided to wander down and look at the Port of Sale. I had no idea it was like a canal. There were lots of boats, old and new.
On our way back to the car we passed a new looking Information Centre cum Public Library cum Art Gallery building that looked interesting enough to explore. Am I glad we did! Inside the Art Gallery was an exhibition of Annameike Mein's life works. What first drew my attention were some bronzes she had made, one being of one of my childhood favourite authors, Mary Grant Bruce.
I didn't know Mein did bronzes. She is known for her 3D textile art which is just extraordinary. She is fascinated by insects and birds and is a very keen observer. She dyes materials, she uses watercolours, and then embroiders the details on the cloth. The following is just a tiny example of what was in the exhibition. This shows three stages of a work, the drawing, the painting, then the final textile work.
The level of detail she manages to capture with thread is amazing. Nothing goes to waste either. This silverfish was created using clothing tags!
In this last photo, she shows how keenly she observes creatures. Those 'sticks' in the cocoon are embroidered material.
Truly inspiring. I'm glad we stopped off at Sale!
We then headed to Omeo, via Bairnsdale where we did not revisit the Catholic Church for another sermon! The road to Omeo is part of the Great Alpine Road. The farmland here is rolling hills with a backdrop of treed mountains, unlike the flat farmland near the coast.
In other places, the scenery was just plain baffling. I've seen many signs to cemeteries before, but not one warning me about it!
And that was today, lots of driving but some interesting stops on the way.
Day 18 - Mar 10: Well, today didn't go quite as planned. We packed up, hoping to make our way to Tom Groggin campground with a view of climbing Mt Kosciusko tomorrow ...
Our first problem with the truck appeared this morning - a flat tyre. We managed to change it with no problems, but on our way out of the campsite we noticed problem number two - a flashing warning on our dash. On looking up the truck manual we discovered that the warning comes on when there is a transfer case malfunction (transfer case being the thing that transfers power from the transmission to the front and rear axles on a 4WD - according to Google). The manual said not to drive far and take it to a mechanic. Great! We are in Omeo. So, I rang the Mercedes Roadside Assistance (we purchased 7 years of it when we bought the truck), not wanting to drive any further if it was going to make a problem worse. It turns out that our truck was not on their records - grrrr. Anyway, the person on the end of the phone was very helpful and said she would send someone out, probably within an hour. Yeah, right we thought. We are in Omeo, one and a half hours from the nearest bigger town. However, we received a call to say that someone would be there in about one and a half hours.
We had struck Omeo on the day of the Peaks Challenge, a 235km circuit race from Falls Creek, through Tawonga, Mt Hotham, Omeo and back to Falls Creek. It starts at 6am and you have 13 hours to complete it. Well at least we had something to watch! The first four riders came through so far in front of the rest of the field (or should I say rests of the field - there were soooo many groups) that at first we thought that there couldn't be too many riders. It is said to be very much like a stage of the Tour de France.
With time to kill we decided to walk along the road to the Oriental Claims area of the old goldfields around here. This way we could view the cyclists as they came past (and cheer them on). It was a longer walk than we anticipated and by the time we got there we had little time to explore because we needed to be back at the car just in case the mechanic turned up. And it was hot - about 30 - 33 degrees. We did take the time to look at a couple of the old diggings sites, but to be honest it just looks like a dug out bit of bush now.
Mind you, that little bit of bush netted Ah Fong, the claim holder, the equivalent of $3 million worth of gold!
I speed walked back to the car just in case. No sign so I rang Mercedes up again. At the same time I
received a call from the mechanic to say that he would be unable to get to Omeo until sometime after two o'clock because the Great Alpine Road is closed for the bike race until then!
This meant we had many more hours to kill so decided to lunch out at one of the local cafes and have a bit more of a look around town. The town is an old gold mining town, so it goes without saying that two of the important old buildings are the Court House and Old Lockup.
Another, even though obviously more recent, is the pub with it's current colour befitting the town's history.
It was a pity we hadn't about the delay earlier because we could have had a more pleasant time wandering around the diggings.
However, we spent the rest of the afternoon reading (Pete) and knitting (me) while watching the myriad of cyclists come past. They seemed to enjoy our encouragement.
Finally, at about 3:30, the mechanic arrived to try and figure out the problem with his digital problem reader thing. Turns out that it was giving confusing messages so he resorted to Google and with a flick of a few switches the problem warning sign disappeared. He stuck with us while we tested out the transmission to make sure it could change between high and low range and on seeing that everything was done, left us. The was no way we were going to make it to Tom Groggin campground, so instead we opted to drive toward Corryong and find a campsite on the way. There are quite a few few on the road between Omeo and Corryong.
Again there was lots of evidence of the 2020 fires. One side of the range was almost completely devoid of living mature trees. On the other, the bush looks healthy.
Lots of interesting scenery on the way, both rural and wild.
The road is winding and during the week is apparently often subject to insane logging truck drivers but we were lucky that it was a Sunday and there were none around. There were some beautiful vistas of the high country.
We finally arrived at a camp we thought would be okay and found ourselves a nice isolated spot on the creek, Wheeler Creek to be precise. Wheeler Creek at Stacey's Bridge in the Nariel Valley. We enjoyed a pre-dinner swim and wash in the creek - beautiful and not too freezing.
I even felt comfortable putting up my moth lights as we were far enough away from other campers. As we were close to the creek, the lights attracted lots of caddisflies and mayflies as well. I was very frustrated though as my normal flash outfit was not working properly so the photos weren't very successful.
Day 19 - Mar 11: We got away early so that we could get to our next booked campground in Kosciusko NP with plenty of time up our sleeves. On the way we checked out Tom Groggin campground and a couple of lookouts. At Khancoban we called in to the NP office to buy our car permits and get some information. When I told the woman on the desk that we were hoping to climb Kosciuszko tomorrow, she informed us that the chairlift up to Eagles Nest would be out of action and so we would have to climbs up from the village (or drive to Charlotte's Pass and walk from there). I couldn't believe this, but I am determined to walk it anyway. Pete is not so keen as the 13km walk becomes 21km and the first 4 kms are very steep.
After setting up camp at the Ngarigo Campground, about 8km down the road from Thredbo, we decided to try out the mountain bikes on the nearby trails. I have not done and mountain biking for a while but the distances didn't look too far. All up we did 10 km and I only fell off once! No injuries to speak of. We were intending going further but I decided that I wanted to be sure I could get back to camp! Mountain bike riding certainly makes my adrenalin pump! The track travels along the Thredbo River and is quite scenic.
Our camp is frequented by deer, some other night critters and an extended family of ducks. Unfortunately, the deer seem to a growing problem all around NSW and Victoria at the moment.
After checking the weather and discussing our options we decided to give the Kosciuszko Summit walk a go tomorrow. We will leave early so that there is no need to hurry. Off to bed a bit earlier than usual.
Day 20 - Mar 12: Finally, I have climbed Mt Kosciuszko! And, done it the hard way from Thredbo Village and better still, Pete did it with me - and survived.
We started the hike at about 8am giving us plenty of time for the many tests we knew we would need on the first part up to Eagle's Nest. And we did. There were stairs, many of which were at least 300mm high. I take my hat off to toddlers who climb the equivalent height (relative to theirs') as an everyday thing. I discovered that I must have bruised a knee in yesterday's stack on the bike, but it didn't really affect anything going up.
It is always fascinating watching the change in flora as you climb up mountains. It always reminds me of when I climbed Mt Gede in Indonesia with my parents and one of my brothers. It was the best geography lesson. We saw the tall tropical rainforest trees morph into smaller trees, into shrubs, and then into grasslands (with volcanic activity right at the top). Here, the tall eucalypts disappear almost in a straight line at a certain height, the snow gums appear, then they shrink and there are more shrubs and finally you reach the alpine heath.
We had a morning tea break at Eagle's Nest before heading up for the last, relatively easy 6 km. I love the scenery up here. Despite the fact that our highest mountain is not very high at all, the alpine climate gives this place an entirely different feel to the mountains nearer home.
Finally we'd reached the start of the usual Summit Walk
Reaching the summit felt good, even if the last part of the walk was spoilt a bit by workers who are upgrading the path near the summit. However, so many people must climb it that the world's are needed to protect the mountain from any further damage.
Pete enlightened one of the workers that they had the 'top' job in Australia.
On the way up to Eagle's Nest, we only met up with one other person, an Indian bloke, here to complete mountain no. 5 of the Seven Peaks (highest Peaks on 7 continents). He had already done Everest, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua in Argentina, and Mt Denali in USA. Only Antarctica's Vinson Massif and Mt Elbrus in Russia to go! He was an interesting person and enjoying the hike, even if it wasn't very challenging for him! In the photo he is holding a picture of his Hungarian girlfriend who normally hikes with him but who, for some reason, couldn't make it this time to Australia.
We enjoyed lunch at the top and played a bit on the trig point, before deciding to vacate the place before hordes of people (we had seen the climbing up the track fron Charlotte's Pass) arrived. Turned out that it was a school group. I'm glad we didn't stay.
We meandered back down and I took a little more time to take photos than I had on the way up. There were a few birds, a few flowers and lots of interesting plants. We will have to come back again in real wildflower season. It would be so pretty.
My knee felt a bit sorer going downhill on the steep part but nothing too bad. We rewarded our efforts with an ice coffee in Thredbo, then set back to camp for a rest and an icebath in the Thredbo River. No doubt we will be a little stiff tomorrow.
Day 21: The end of our trip draws near as we have headed back towards home, going via family and friends in Sydney, Newcastle and beyond.
Finally we'd reached the start of the usual Summit Walk
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