Day: 20
Date: Monday, 06 May 2019
Start: 4.0km south of Tin Mine Huts
Finish: Thredbo Village
Daily Kilometres: 28.8 AAWT plus 4.0 from trail to Thredbo Village
Total AAWT Kilometres: 447.1
Weather: Cool and overcast in the morning and mostly sunny in the afternoon
Accommodation: Room at Thredbo Alpine Hotel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli
Lunch: Trail Mix
Dinner: Cheeseburger & chips
Aches: Both very tired.
Highlight: The spectacular open alpine scenery from Bob's Ridge all the way down to Thredbo on a beautiful afternoon, knowing that showers and junk food awaited us.
Lowlight: None really
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 5am and were packed and walking by 6am using headlamps, having never seen our campsite in daylight. It was overcast with no Eta Aquariid meteor shower to be seen, sadly. It started to get light around 6:40am as we cruised along the somewhat muddy 4WD track enjoying the quiet alpine forest gradually being revealed around us.
Getting to Thredbo, and our booked hotel, was on our mind, and although not racing, we kept up a comfortable and steady pace. As is my habit, I turned on my radio to try and find some of the morning ABC news programs around 7:30am, sometimes a fruitless task, but not today. Julie, who sometimes likes listening to music as she walks, then usually looks for a music station. Even when not listening to the radio/music, we don't tend to chat much while walking. Generally, it's just a companionable silence, absorbing our surrounds, and pointing out anything that piques our interest.
Late yesterday, and several times during the morning, there were signs posted along the track warning that a 7km section of the trail up ahead was closed and access prohibited because of tree clearing operations. It was a bit late to tell us, given we had no alternative route, so we continued on hoping there would be no problem. Although we did encounter a lot of cut trees and bulldozed areas, along with muddy churned up track, we never did meet any workers or see any machinery. The only life we saw all morning, apart from birds, were two good-sized wild dogs, that both loped off to avoid us.
We reached Cascade Hut, with 13km to go, just before lunch, and were happy with our progress, but tired. The scenery began changing from forest to more open alpine country as we climbed over Bob's Ridge, and the sun came out, lighting up some spectacular vistas. It was very pleasant and rewarding walking. We crossed the Thredbo River, then followed it downstream from high on the slopes to Dead Horse Gap, where we met a road. After a short break, we left the official AAWT here and continued following the river downstream 4km on a lovely trail all the way into Thredbo, arriving at our hotel at 3:30pm. That left plenty of time to check-in then get down to the little supermarket/post office to buy some snack food and pick up the food parcel and some better tent pegs I had ordered (the pegs that came with our new tent have a tendency to bend easily).
Later we showered, did some laundry and had dinner at a bar attached to our hotel. With still a month to go to the start of the ski season, Thredbo is very quiet, mostly populated with workers getting ready for the season, and just a couple of eateries open. We have had another good day, and after two long days of hiking, are looking forward to a lazy day tomorrow.
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