Our plan was to walk for four days from lodge to lodge, three course meal to three course meal. We would start at Perisher and walk to Charlotte Pass, Thredbo & Guthega before finishing back at Perisher.
Starting at the car park in Perisher we followed the path to to Porcupine rocks. Having driven past this point on so many occasions I was amazed I have missed this amazing place, the views back across to the Thredbo Valley were amazing.
From porcupine rocks we back tracked a short way before linking up with a ski pole line that led to Charlotte Pass. I would say that at least 80% of the way there was at least a faint foot pad to Charlotte Pass. The walking was great and offered amazing views all the way to Charlotte's.
We stayed overnight at the Stillwell Lodge and had a great meal! actually it was kind of nice to finish the days walking with a cold beer and three course meal!
Day two started with a long climb out of Charlotte's Pass all the way to Mount Stillwell. We followed a footpad out of the village which led to the old Stillwell cafe and we could see the remains of the old chairlift at the top of little Stillwell. Walking to the top of stillwell provided truly amazing views of the main range, especially as we were due to walk the main range track the following day.
From Stillwell we followed a compass bearing to the top of Thredbo, where we linked up with the Merrits ski trails and followed the village trail all the way to the bottom. It is fair to say a 3km downhill walk is not the way to finish the day and I guess I didn't factor the km's spent walking in the village to and from lodging, although we were lucky to stay close to the village. What was a great way to finish the day, was to walk into Thredbo, walk straight to the pub and sit down for a beer and burger.
Walking in Kosi over Christmas is fantastic, and day 3 didn't disappoint. The weather was amazing, sunny and 15 degree's everyday albeit a little windy at times. We joined the queue of eager (and not so eager) bushwalkers at the bottom of the chairlift and inwardly chuckled as we watch group after group jump on the chairlift in t shirt and shorts only to freeze in the 40km an hour winds at the top!
It is here that I must admit I made a mistake. The maps we utilised to set up the walk showed km's and these did differ from those on the trail head, at first I didn't give much thought to these but as the km's went past I realised we had done a few additional km's than expected, in fact over the day we did 3 additional km which in itself is not a lot but added to the additional 21km we did during the day it made for a long walk to Guthega.
Like everyone we followed the yellow brick road (well metal) road to Rawson pass, marvelled at the bomb proof toilet and then left the crowd at Kosciouszko to follow the main range trail.
The photos really say it all:
Albina
Watson's Crags
We enjoyed an amazing lunch overlooking the Sentinal and Watson's crags before walking onto Blue Lake.
We crossed over the river at the base of blue lake before taking a compass bearing to the ridge coming off Twynam, well that was the plan anyway. The reality was that we walked in the general direction of the Twynam ridge but skirted the more dense scrub in between; the plan was working well up until Twynam creek where we had little choice but to scrub bash for 500m. At times it was easier to follow the creek but in the end we made our way to the swing bridge near Illawong lodge.
The footpad from the bridge to Guthega was truly appreciated after 5km of off track walking as was the view of our accommodation although there were a few negative comments when we realised the hotel was at the top of the hill.
The thought of a cold beer got us up the hill to the accommodation and excellent meal (and accommodation) at the Guthega Alpine hotel was a fitting end to what was an amazing day's walking.
The last days walk was a short hop back to Perisher, following the service roads from Guthega to Blue Cow and then onto Perisher. Having spent three days walking with amazing views, we were a little spoilt and the walk to Perisher was a little depressing but still a nice end to an amazing walk.
