Family trip to Kosciuszko
24–26 April 2023
We had planned on camping near Thredbo and had a campsite booked but later decided it was getting too late in the season, too cold, and we didn’t want to risk Ms6 getting asthma or not enjoying herself because of the weather.
So we booked an Airbnb in Jindabyne and made day trips into the national park.
On the way to Jindabyne we stopped in Cooma at the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre where Ms6 played with the 3D map of the hydro scheme where it highlights the reservoirs, generators, and tunnels.
The Snowy Hydro scheme — recognised as one of the greatest engineering wonders of the modern world — has 9 power stations, 16 major dams, 145km of tunnels, 31 turbines, took 25 years to complete and can generate 4100 megawatts.
On the first day we headed down Kosciuszko Road to Charlotte Pass with stops along the way. Unfortunately, our DSLR camera was out of action with a broken battery hatch and the replacement hadn’t arrived in time, so all our photos were taken with our phones.
Ms6 enjoyed running around the area and looking at the millions of grasshoppers clicking and jumping around.
Ms6 also directed and largely shot her first public video, which we gave her permission to do if her face or our home didn’t appear in the video, and she didn’t reveal any personal information such as her name, our address or phone numbers, or her school.
We drove the Link Road through Smiggin Holes over to Guthega and had a quick look at Guthega Dam and the Guthega Power Station — the highest power station in Australia. It was not generating power at the time.
That night there was a G3 geomagnetic storming alert and we dashed out in the car with dinner to see it. I think we missed the main event while frantically trying to find a dark view to the south, but our phones picked up a red glow.
The next day we took the Alpine Way towards Thredbo. We knew we had no chance of convincing Ms6 to get on the chairlift and the gondola is currently only running in school holidays (which we just missed) and weekends so we couldn’t get up to the alpine area, but we were content to explore along the valley.
We then drove down the other side of Dead Horse Gap to check out the Leatherbarrel Creek camping and picnic area. It was heartbreaking to descend the mountain through some absolutely devastated forest with not a single tree left alive after the 2020 fires.
The camping and picnic area was beautiful with some stunning Alpine Ash, although quite a small area with maybe room for three tents and being in the valley it was in shade by 3:00pm.
We were exploring the creek when I noticed this water spider just as Ms6 was about to step near it. I thought it was a wolf spider until I posted it on Nature Mapr. It was huge!
I know very little about geology but I think this is a vein of quartz in some quartzite? Lots of I think diorite rocks in the creek bed, perhaps with basalt and some other things.
We finished the day with a short stroll down Thredbo Valley Track from near Dead Horse Gap. Thredbo River is largely fed by Bogong Creek and smaller creeks that come down the slope from South Rams Head, Rams Head, and Rams Head North near the famous Aries Tor.
I managed to find a small patch of one of my favourite flowers — mostly because it reminds me of the alpine areas of New Zealand.
They have a big deer problem in Kosciuszko and we saw dozens of deer around the campgrounds and Jindabyne, including crossing the road at night.
We were fortunate to spot maybe 7 platypus in the Thredbo River further downstream. Very hard to photograph at the best of times, let along with a phone. But here’s proof we weren’t mistaking them for fish:
Played with the torches and long exposures before heading back to the Airbnb.
In the morning we had some time left on our park pass so we headed back up Kosciuszko Road and walked a little way along Rennix Walk.
On the way out of the park we checked out Sawpit Creek lower down in the montane sclerophyll forest.
On the way back to Canberra Ms6 was still keen to find a geocache that had a toy or trinket so we stopped in Tyrolean. The cache was empty but we did see a White’s Skink.
A fun trip with beautiful weather, but we’re keen to come back when there’s a bit of snow maybe in early spring when there’s some flowers and some of the snow has melted, towards the end of the ski season.
Hopefully then we can at least get Ms6 on the gondola, if not the chairlift up to the top and along the Kosciuszko walk to the lookout, perhaps even the summit itself.
