We climbed 'Mt Everest' today ....

.... well, not quite lol. But we caught the chairlift up Mt Kosciuszko and then walked the 2 kms to the lookout.  My breathing at that altitude wouldn't let me go the extra 4 1/2 kms to the summit.

When we arrived at Thredbo where the only chairlift that is open during summer is located, it looked quite a climb just to where the chairlift goes, and we couldn't see beyond that.

It was quite busy, with a fair number of people catching the chairlift, and quite a few riding their mountain bikes at breakneck speed down the track that zig-zags down the side of the mountain.  Now I am not good with heights and when we caught the chairlift up 'The Nob' in Tasmania I had to reassure Nathan all the way up (and down again) that we were fine even though inside I was quite scared coming down.  So I wasn't sure how I'd enjoy this part.  But it was fine and I did indeed enjoy the trip up.  It was fascinating watching the bike riders zoom down the track underneath us.  I was surprised at their speed and wondered how often riders come a cropper on the track.  Afterwards our friends told us that when they went up the mountain the previous week one of the riders had indeed come off his bike and the mountain rescue team had to bring him down to the base where the ambulance was waiting. 

In some places you can see a track where people can actually walk up the whole mountain. There are little steps on the track, which make one realize that it is steeper than it looks in the photos.

 It was a pleasant ride up, travelling at a sedate pace.  The temperature certainly dropped the higher we went, and the wind was really strong too.  I had to hold on to my hat with both hands or it would have gone flying.

 
Where the chairlift stops is Eagles Rest Restaurant, at 1937 metres (6355feet) it is Australia's highest restaurant.  We left a visit there until later though, and started off on the track towards the summit.  We knew we wouldn't reach that far, we aren't fit enough for a 13km round trip with my breathing the way it is but we did aim for the lookout which is a 4km round trip.  

The track starts off as paving stones for some distance.

 Then after a while it is a mesh grid, built 20 years ago to protect the fragile alpine environment after the previous track became extremely eroded and damage to the flora was quite bad.  Now this grid allows passage over the boggy, marshy places and lets sunlight pass through to the ground, with some of the delicate plants growing from below right up to the grid.

After being sunburned twice during the previous week to the extent that I had blisters, I was wearing a proper hiking shirt over my t-shirt,to protect my neck and arms.  It was very cool and windy and I had trouble keeping my wide-brimmed hat on my head but that did make it easier for me to walk even if my breathing wasn't great by any means.

The landscape was typically alpine, lots of rocks and low-growing plants.I loved the little alpine flowers, again most of them just the size of a fingernail.

There were quite a few of these tiny butterflies too.  Each wing is also the size of my littlest fingernail.

There were lots of boggy areas under the grid, and many little or larger streams wending their way down too.  I really love the sound of trickling water, it is so relaxing and soothing.

Sometimes water appeared from the tiniest cracks and disappeared just as quickly too, but it was just one part of the many streams that eventually join together to make the river that we crossed and drove beside, down at Thredbo.  I found the going pretty tough after a while, because it was harder and harder to breathe but I kept using my Ventolin and finally got there.  Here is Peter at the lookout, elevation 2000metres (6562 feet).

From the lookout we could see several hardy souls on the track going up to the summit but had no desire to follow their example.  We will have another go sometime when we have been walking a lot more before camp.  I'd really like to reach the summit some day.  After we returned we were told that we had actually done the steepest part of the climb, it is only another 228 metres (748 feet) to the summit, but it is a long distance, another 4.5 kms 2.8 miles).  

The return 2kms didn't take nearly as long as the walk up -- strange, that lol.  By the time we were on the return trip there were lots of other people also returning, but they had done the whole trip to the summit.  We stopped at a stream near the end where a couple of guys were standing watching a red-bellied black snake among the rocks at the side of the water.  That's the distance I prefer snakes from me - several metres at a minimum.

We stopped at the Eagles Rest Restaurant for some lunch.  There is a really nice brass eagle in the restaurant, I'm sorry the photo isn't very good but the light coming in through the window made it hard to get a good one.  

By the way, they serve delicious meals and the best hot chocolate ever.  This is the view from the side door where the fire escape is.

We took a few more photos then set off for the trip down via chair lift.  As I said before, I was nervous about this but to my pleasure and surprise really enjoyed it this time.  It seemed a long way down at first

but it was a pleasant descent and over too soon.  We passed quite a few people with their bikes attached to the ski holder at the back of their chair lift.  I joked to one couple that they were cheating - they should have ridden up the mountain as well as going down but they weren't convinced for some strange reason!

Down in Thredbo we paused a moment to admire a life-size sculpture of an emu and his baby (yes, his - it's the father bird who raises the chicks)

- again, the sun made it difficult to get a good photo.  And next to the emus there are a couple of boards with large chess pieces and draughts (in America you call them checkers) pieces.  The chess pieces were about a metre tall.

We had quite a walk to where Peter had parked the car once we reached the bottom but again that was pleasant, a lot of it was beside the Thredbo River.  

And there were nice flowers as well, growing wild.  Again, because of the altitude each flower was tiny.

We certainly achieved our 10,000 steps today!!  And that's without the ordinary walking around before and after our visit to Thredbo.

On the way back from Thredbo to Jindabyne we stopped to have a look at this interesting sculpture, just sitting there in the middle of nowhere.  We had passed it before but there were people climbing on it so we didn't stop that time.  It is huge - I photographed Peter standing beside it for perspective.

Altogether it was a really good day and I'm glad we did it even if we didn't attempt the summit.  Next time maybe ;).  Maybe.