December 4: Climbing Australia's tallest mountain: Mt. Kosciusko

We arrived in a small town called Jindabyne around 9:00 p.m. on the 3rd and found a very secluded place to park our camper-van for the night, near some public bathrooms right across from the elementary school. As you would imagine, a parking lot does not provide very much privacy, and once morning came, we realized just how in the open we really were and some weird looks were cast our way as we wandered between the van and the bathroom. Valena got a few extra looks as she was eating her morning granola and yogurt on the curb, right where parents were dropping off their kids for school. I can only imagine what the mom's were telling their kids as they passed her..."see Tommy, that is why you stay in school...you don't wanna be eating breakfast on the curb!"
I'm sure that all of you at home are wondering how we are surviving by parking in truck stops, random parking lots, gravel roads, etc...and using just public washrooms, but really, it's not THAT bad. It's pretty fun actually. It's always an adventure AND a surprise finding a place to stay for the night and discovering what it looks like in the daylight. Typically they are totally different, which leads to great stories and laughter. Maybe that's why we like it so much, there never seems to be a dull moment. We are also getting pretty used to being looked at strangely. I suppose I would too if I saw 4 girls crawling out of a camper van, all with bed head and making their way across a parking lot to the public bathroom...which by the way, do not have hot water. It's a good thing that it's been warm so far otherwise washing our faces with cold water would not be pleasurable. We are bad enough at taking regular showers, but could you imagine if we never washed our faces? That'd be a whole new dimension to traveling! And just to clarify a few things about us showering, or lack thereof. Since we've been traveling, we've realized how often we shower at home when it's not really necessary and have decided that instead of showering quite as often, we will wash in the ocean and go a few extra days without a shower. It's our way of conserving water. Now some may say it's not hygienic and gross, but it really isn't. Salt is an antiseptic and so we figured that since we are daily going into the ocean and saltwater, that it only makes sense to use that to keep ourselves clean. I understand that some of you at home may not totally understand or agree with our reasoning...but we are sticking with it!

Ok, now back to the real reason why I'm writing this blog. The next morning in Jindabyne, Danielle and I drove out to the National Park which is only about 15 minutes from town and as we were feeling very ambitious, decided to take the most difficult hike, which is the 21.5 km circuit combining the main range walk and the summit walk. Mt.Kosciusko's summit is 2228 meters high, making it the tallest mountain in Australia. The majority of the hike to the summit was on an old gravel road that was actually used until 1974, but as we got higher, the trail became a nice formed path with a couple of snow drifts for us to cross. It was a bit of a surprise for us to see snow in Australia. We knew that we were in the snowy mountains, but seeing as it's summer in Australia, we weren't expecting snow at all. Apparently it had snowed just two days before...what a sight that would've been! Lucky for us, it was perfect weather, sunny and blue skies. We were warned to bring warm clothes for when we reached the summit, so we each brought a jacket, but once we reached the top, it really wasn't that chilly. Apparently us Canadians can handle the cold and wind a bit better than Aussies. A lady even stopped us to take a picture of us wearing our shorts since she thought we were crazy! If only they knew what the weather was like at home! On our way to the summit, we reached the Seamans Hut, which was built in 1929 in memory of Laurie Seaman, an American who died while trying to ski cross-county Mt. Kosciusko. It was built to be a refuge for others that may need refuge while in the mountains.
We reached the summit around lunch time and took our time eating our lunches and taking pictures of the amazing view. We continued our way around the mountains on the Charlotte pass, where we crossed many more snow drifts, the famous Snowy River (which Dan was very excited about) and views of glacial lakes, Mount Sentinel and Watsons Crags. The terrain was very different from back at home. Boulders were everywhere, no trees in sight, and views that seemed to go on forever. We definitely got some good use out of our cameras that day. Overall the hike was not very strenuous, as the mountains here aren't near as massive as the Rockies back at home, but we did manage to get our hearts racing a bit. The last stretch of the hike is referred to as "the cardiac arrest." It consists of a continuous incline in the trail to reach the end. It's a good thing that Dan and I are in decent shape because I don't think that either of us were prepared to preform CPR on each other...we may be a bit rusty since neither of us have worked for a couple of months. Funny how those skills seem to disappear when you are on vacation!

We finished the hike late in the afternoon and didn't really have much time to relax. We rushed back to Jindabyne so that we could join Britt and Valena at the movie theatre to watch New Moon. None of us had seen a movie since leaving home and we were all really looking forward to it. Britt and Valena were extra excited, I think mainly because instead of coming on the hike with us, they decided to spend their day in a cute, little bookstore and were now seeking some interaction with the rest of the world. After the movie, and falling in love with Jacob, Dan, Britt and I decided to do a double-feature and watched Couples Retreat as well. I think we are all safe to say that we don't need to go to another movie for a while.
Jindabyne is a sweet, little mountain town that has a lot of character and something to offer to people of all interests. Being so close to the Kosciusko National Park, you could spend days hiking the trails, or if hiking isn't your thing, the town has shops and short walks around the lake to fill up your day. Apparently there is a nice campground right by the lake, but we prefer parking lots so we didn't check that out. There is just something about parking lots that attracts us. Maybe it's the fact that we don't have to pay, or else the adrenaline rush we get from not knowing whether we are gonna be woken up by a cop telling us we can't park there. Either way, whoever invented them really deserves a pat on the back.
Jod