Monday, November 30th, Hiking in the Australian Alps

Bob:

Our plan was to stay another night at the motel in Cooma and use the day to drive into the Australian Alps and walk some trails. So after a quick breakfast we drove westward through a rolling landscape that gradually became mountainous. The central spine of the mountains was 3000+ meters, so they were roughly the same size as the Blue Ridge Mountains back in Virginia. In shape they were also mostly rounded and covered with green trees or bushes, which also reminded me of the Appalachian Mountains and would contrast with the steeper and more stark and severely shaped mountains like the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre in Jindabyne and it had a lot of information about the original settlement of the area and the subsequent establishment of the Mount Kosciusko National Park that encompasses the central massif of the Australian Alps. Unfortunately, the weather report as well as the direct video feeds from cameras up on the slopes indicated that fog, rain, and snow were predominant above 1500 meters. That's mighty unpleasant weather to take a hike on the mountaintops, so we devised a Plan B, which was to find a hiking trail below the fog/rain/snow belt. The lady at the desk suggested parking at the Ski Tube and hiking a loop along the Thredbo River and we decided to give that a whirl.

I'm not sure just what the Ski Tube does in season, but it was nice of them to leave the parking lots open for us hikers even though they were closed for the summer. We parked in the parking lot farthest to the rear that was directly adjacent to the trai head and off we went. We apparently were the first hikers of the day, because right off the bat we encountered kangaroos who were grazing near or on the trails. They seemed a bit grumpy at having us interrupt what was no doubt good grazing, but after considering us and our clicking cameras for a bit they moved off the trails so we could get by. That was a good thing because up close and personal some of them are rather good-sized animals and I wasn't about to try to physically force them off the trail. Although they are herbivores, they can apparently attack humans and do some serious damage if they get upset. Fortunately the ones we met all seemed pretty laid back and more disgruntled than aggressive.

We walked downstream for a bit to an old "hut", a leftover of the early settlement period as I recall, but the high level of the creek feeding the river at that point prevented us from following the riverside trail any farther in that direction. So we reversed course and rejoined the part of the loop trail heading upstream along the Thredbo River. That part of the walk was quite picturesque with the river burbling over rocks below, the tree-covered slopes of the mountains across from us, and the layer of clouds rolling along a few hundred feet above us, obscuring the mountaintops.

We found several different kinds of very delicate spring flowers decorating the riverbanks and the sides of the trail. We also passed some weird looking trees. When the cloud layer lifted briefly once, Monika espied what looked like a snow field in a protected hollow high up on the slopes of the mountain directly in front of us. I have no doubt that there were other snowfields on the peaks around us but we never saw them as they were obscured.

At the top of the loop we curled around and followed the trail back down to the Thredbo campground located inside the Mount Kosciusko National Park and then returned back to our starting point via a land route. Park employees were hard at work converting the footpath to a paved hiker/biker path in that section, which gave us a great trail to walk on but of course also scared away the wildlife like the beautiful parakeet (or parrot or cockatoo or something! very unsure about Australian birds!) we had seen earlier.

About that time the intermittent rain showers started to become heavier and more frequent, greatly reducing both our enjoyment and the photographic opportunities. Since Monika's camera is waterproof, she at least could still take pictures of some of the interesting wildflowers. Our rain jackets worked fine, but our feet were getting pretty soggy by the time we returned to our car, cranked up the heater, and drove back to Jindabyne for lunch. Unfortunately the weather showed no signs of lifting, so we drove back to Cooma after lunch.

Returning to our hotel room, we removed our shoes and socks for drying and then I conked out for an hour, after which we drove over to the Snowy River Hydroelectric headquarters on the other side of Cooma. That turned out to be quite interesting as there is a huge system of underground tunnels diverting water hither and yon underneath the Australian Alps. Who knew? The net result is a large amount of hydroelectric power plus a redirecting of water from the eastern slopes of the mountain range to the western side where it is used to augment the Murray River for irrigating crops as the Murray flows generally westward. I had no idea that 3/4 of all the irrigated land in Australia was supplied by water from the Snowy Mountain Hydroelectric project. That's huge!

We returned to our room for a quiet evening meal, and except for one fruitless attempt to visit an outlet mall down the street that had already closed up shop for the night we turned to our usual set of indoor activities for the rest of the evening.