Thredbo 2019, Days 3 & 4: Joining the dots

Days three and four, this year, were perfect ones – weather-wise. Both days were clear and sunny, with mild temperatures in the very low 20°sC. Perfect for walking, so that’s what we did.

Joining the dots

There aren’t many day-walks we haven’t done in the region, but one is the Summit Walk from Charlotte Pass. The problem is that because Charlotte Pass is 70 kilometres from Thredbo, any walk you do has to be a return trip because there’s no easy way of picking up a car if you end up in Thredbo. The Summit Walk to Mt Kosciuszko and back is 18km, which is just that bit longer than we like to do, wusses that we are! However, it suddenly occurred to me that we could do a 12km return trip to Seaman’s Hut. That would achieve two things – we’d get to see a part of the region we haven’t seen before and we’d join some dots because we’ve walked to Seaman’s Hut from the Thredbo end a couple of times.

As a walk this one is pretty uneventful. Most of it is in the above-the-treeline alpine region, meaning there’s not a lot of variety in scenery. Also, it follows a service road so the walking is easy. However, it does have its challenges and interests. Challenge-wise, the track out is almost all in the up direction, though fortunately the gradient is gentle – except for the final 1km pull up to the Hut. The main interest – besides the fact that the scenery is lovely – is that it crosses the Snowy River, and these alpine rivers are gorgeous. The other interest was particular to our day – a helicopter. On our way out, we noticed some workers on the side of the track with what looked like girders and other building materials. Not long after, we heard a helicopter and realised it was coming and going from the work-site. On our return trip, we learnt that a 1.8km metal boardwalk was being built on the Main Range Walk, and they were “ferrying” the necessary materials across. Each trip was taking 10 minutes, one little piece of building material at a time! I must say that we love the way the tracks are maintained in the Park. It’s rare for us not to notice some improvement somewhere each time we return.

Before I leave this walk I should say something about its focus, Seaman’s Hut. It’s a beautiful stone hut. A lovely shape. According to Wikipedia, “it was built following the death of two skiers, W. Laurie Seaman and Evan Hayes in 1928. Laurie’s family built the hut to provide shelter to future users of the park, in order to prevent recurrence of a similar tragedy.” It was opened in 1929, the year my Mum was born, and, like her, it is still going strong!

On our way back to Thredbo, we stopped at the Wild Brumby for a quick refreshment. It was 2pm, but the place was really busy. As we sat at our outside table, a regular stream of people passed, carrying their Wild Brumby bags containing a Schnapps or Gin or two. Wild Brumby knows how to get people in.

Hello Leonard

In the evening we did one of our favourite evening things – tapas on the patio at Bernti’s. I sat on the patio while Len went in to order some food. I heard some jollity, and not long after Len returned to explain. He’d gone in and was in the process of ordering from the young woman behind the counter, when a fellow appeared and said “Hello Leonard”! She said, “Do you know each other?” and he replied, “No, but he comes in once every year!” Haha, that we do. The memory is amazing – the Leonard coming from Len’s credit card which he’d provided each year for the tab.

Anyhow, as always, we had a lovely evening. We moved inside part way through, as it was a little cool, and sat at the table next to the place’s manager, with whom we had an interesting chat. One of the things we love about coming here is getting a sense of the local community. It’s such a small place, and so specific to the snow. Fascinating.

Another walk

We’d planned a quieter day today, and doing another longer walk tomorrow, our last day. However, the weather forecast suggested that today was the best day for a walk. So, being the flexible people we are, we decided to do Friday’s walk on Thursday – and chose the Dead Horse Gap Walk, from the top.

We’ve done this ca. 10km walk many times, but the last two times in the up-direction. We decided to return to the down-direction this time. (Would our knees survive? They did – though in Len’s case, only just, perhaps.) Anyhow, this means getting the chairlift up to Eagle’s Nest and then walking down. What’s special about this walk – besides my favourite tree being en-route – is the variety of landscape (unlike yesterday’s). You start in the above-treeline alpine herb fields, then move through a lovely Snow Gum forest (where my tree is), until you finally reach Dead Horse Gap, from which you walk through riverside woodlands, along the Thredbo River. Really lovely, if hard work at times.

As usual, on these walks, we didn’t see much in the way of wild-life – except for the always-carefully-positioned-on-a-ledge-or-edge cubic wombat scat. But, also as usual, we met and conversed with other walkers of all ages, out here enjoying the alps. It’s special.

Candlelight Lodge

We are always on the look-out for new dining places – as long as they don’t interfere with our favourites – and this year there was one, the restaurant at the Candlelight Lodge. It has never opened in summer before, but this year decided to try dinner service from Thursday to Saturday (or Sunday – we’ll be gone so didn’t take note.)

We were given a lovely table by the window, with a great view of gums on the range. The food was tasty – especially the roasted carrots entrée – and the service, by a young French woman, was delightful. I tried my first German Pinot Gris (very yellow in colour, but not bad) and a French Chardonnay (not so yellow, but also ok). Len tried an apple blackcurrant cider. The food and drink here in Thredbo can tend to the alpine/European, which is nice for a change. It can sometimes seem a little heavy for summer, but, after big walks, you don’t always notice!

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