Tuesday 8 January 2013

Australian High Country

We're off again!! After 2 months of working, cleaning, washing and looking after the house, it's nice to be on the road again! The plan is to head south and then west through as many national parks as possible. Unfortunately, we started the adventure during one of Australia's worst heat waves and fire dangers in decades. We decided to head high into the Snowy Mountains to cooler temperatures. Below is our camp along the Thredbo River.

Here we are on top of Australia!! We climbed Mt Kosciuszko twice, once on foot from Thredbo via Eagles Nest and the next day on bicycles via Charlotte Pass.

There are so many wild flowers at the moment and the landscape is just stunning!! One of our old time favourites!! 




Me in front of Seaman's hut, which is an emergency shelter in memory of some lost skiers.

The snow gums are so unique and beautiful!!

On the 8th of January the fire danger reached catastrophic proportions and the National Park was closed. We moved down to Jindabyne to a hotel to wait and re-assess.
Below is a screen shot from the NSW Rural Fire Services with all the fires currently burning in NSW - over 100!!

Jindabyne has some great mountain bike trails along the lake. We spent another two days walking and riding while camping back on the Thredbo river. 

The devastation caused by the 2003 bushfires is still obvious. Much of the area looks like the photo below with dead snow gums and knee-high regrowth (after 10 years!).

The snow gums that survived look as gorgeous as this.


Due to the total fire ban we were not allowed to use our camping stove to cook potatoes. We used the electrical BBQ instead and it took forever!! We both ended up with a tummy ache because we couldn't wait until the potatoes were soft!

It seems that the high temperatures and fire danger are here to stay for a few more weeks. We changed our plans and headed for the coast. The Victorian high country will have to wait!

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