From Sea to Summit - NSW 2019 (Part 1)

We crossed the Victoria / NSW border in mid January to continue our oddessy.

Heading north we passed through the NSW coastal locales of Eden, Pambula and Merimbula along the way to the town of Bega (pronounced ‘bee-ga’), which was to be our base for a few days.  Australian readers will have likely heard the name before as a nationally popular brand of cheese, 'Bega', is named after the town in which it is made.  For any overseas readers, you are now well placed to respond correctly to the highly unlikely pub trivia night question asking you to identify the town after which a popular Australian cheddar is named - this blog can be so informative!

This area of southern NSW is full of beautiful beaches and lush green scenery so over the next few days we explored the hills and coastline.

Heather enjoying the view over Cottage Beach from a nicely positioned chair

Usually the only things to be careful of in NSW waters are ‘rips’ or ‘under-tow’ that can drag you away from the shore, and the occasional shark.  However, this summer due to a slightly abnormal offshore current (that’s what the news has been reporting), another hazard has presented itself.  There have been many ‘Portuguese Man O’ War’ jellyfish (also known as ‘Blue Bottles’), washed ashore.  These are not big things but they are poisonous and a painful sting can result if your bare skin brushes against their long trailing tentacles whether you are swimming in the water or happen to step on the tentacles of those that have been washed onto the beach.  We came across many of these during several walks along the beaches - see photo below.

One of many Blue Bottle jellyfish to have been washed ashore - you can see how they got the name.

With Australia Day and the associated public holiday long weekend that large crowds typically make into a ‘party weekend at the beach’ approaching, WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, never ones to go with the crowd, decided to leave the coast and head inland and upwards.  Just a couple of hours drive had us in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.  We set up base-camp (please note the deliberate and shameless use of mountaineering terms/puns from this point forward), on the banks of the Snowy River where we prepared ourselves to make the climb to the summit of the Australian continent’s highest peak - Mt. Kosciusko!  Preparation included carb-loading (dinner of spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread), and hydration (a couple of beers for me and a couple of glasses of red wine for Heather).  It was then off to bed to rest up for the push to the top!

The next morning, we made the 45 minute drive from base camp to the parking lot at the foot of the mountain: elevation ~1,365 m / 4,475 ft above sea level.   A short 150 m stroll later had us exactly where our detailed trip planning and research had informed us we would need to be in order for each of us be able to purchase a day pass for the chair-lift that would enable the completion of the steepest part of the ascent.  A peaceful, albeit brief, ride in the cool morning mountain air was soon over as we were required to disembark the chair lift at Eagle’s Nest Mountain Hut some 1,930 m / 6,328 ft above sea level.  We are pleased to report that neither of us even got close to breaking a sweat during this part of the ride, sorry, 'climb'.

Mt. Kosciusko Summit Walk is a 13 km round trip

Now on foot for the rest of the way we commenced the final 298 m increase in elevation that would see us at the top of Australia!  At this point you may be (maybe?) thinking of Sir Edmund Hillary and Mt. Everest type footage of the ominous peak of a towering snow-capped mountain standing in front of blue skies but partially hidden behind wispy cloud cover.  Did we break-out our ice-picks, carabiners, ropes and crampon boots?

Spoiler Alert:  No we did not!

Rather than steep, icy slopes and cold howling winds, we were happy to be wearing cotton shirts and hats as we made the last 298 m climb to the summit via a 6.5 km continuous gently inclined (1m up for every 22 m walked) hike through grassy and sometimes rocky highlands along a 2m wide boardwalk.

The headwaters of the Snowy River originate on the slopes of Mt. Kosciusko

This 6.5km boardwalk constitutes the hiking trail to the summit 

After asking a fellow mountaineer to take a photo of us besides the cairn at the summit of the highest peak on the Australian continent (elevation 2,228 m /7,305 ft above sea level), to capture this historic moment for posterity, we ate the last of our our rations (a picnic lunch) while enjoying the view before making the descent back down the hill (sorry, I should have said mountain).

Cairn at the summit.  2,228m/7,305ft above sea level.

In the event that you had not detected some facetiousness in my writing, it is at this point I must confess that the climb to the top of Mt. Kosciusko is not really an arduous one.  The 13 km round trip, none of it steep (except the part that the chair-lift covers), can be achieved by almost anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and a comfortable pair of walking shoes.  Seriously, you can be comfortably up and back by lunchtime!

Now for the legitimate bragging rights: WTF? - Where are The Farrows? can now say with ‘hands-on-hearts’ that we have scaled one of the 7 highest continental peaks on the planet.  I wonder how many of my dear readers can truthfully make that claim?