Thredbo 2020, Days 3 & 4: Walking, eating, chatting

Comin’ down the mountain

Tuesday’s forecast was iffy but we decided to risk walking down the hill. This meant taking the chairlift up, having a cuppa of course at Eagle’s Nest, and walking back down.

Now, there are three main walking tracks down from Eagle’s Nest: Dead Horse Gap track, closed due to “the fire situation”; Merritt’s Traverse, closed due to gondola construction; and Merritt’s Nature Track, the shortest but steepest route, involving a descent of about 600m in 4kms. This was the route we took of course. It does challenge aging knees, but is a really pretty walk. Part way down there is a picnic table, at which we arrived the same time as a woman coming up, so we had a chat. She was from Wollongong and was hiking while her teenage son and friend were mountain biking. She also told us that, as I’d hoped and thought likely, the Thredbo Valley Track was now open. And she explained why it had been closed, despite its paralleling the opened section of the Alpine Way. Although agreeing to open Thredbo, the authorities wanted to contain everyone in a defined space in case of emergency. Fair enough. However, with the rains significantly improving “the fire situation”, this could be relaxed.

This route’s scenery, geological and botanical, is beautiful, but we were disturbed to see some dead Snow Gums, bearing some strange markings. Later research revealed that these were caused by the native longicorn (or ‘longhorn’) beetle. These beetles apparently prefer to lay their eggs on moisture-stressed trees. Not only this, but in warmer weather, their life cycle is significantly sped up, increasing their potential for havoc. Yet another impact of climate change. You can read all about it here.

Anyhow, Merritt’s Nature Track is reasonably demanding for people of average fitness like us, but we made it down despite Len’s hurting knees and my jelly legs. Today, we were like Jack Spratt and his life, Len having sore shins and me sore thighs.

Quiet as…

Thredbo is quiet in the second week of January, our usual timing, but now, after the Blues Festival (and also due to the fires we’re told), it’s almost a ghost town. None of our usual after-walk snack venues were open, and the only one that was, is the bakery whose only gluten-free option (a friand) was sold out. So, hummus on corn thins back in our unit it was!

Bernti’s was one of the very few places open in the evening, which was fine by us, given it’s one of our favourites here – for their food, casual style, friendliness, and view. Not having had lunch we went early and were the only diners. This was nice for us because it was quiet and we were able to have some good chats with the Manager and the English bartender-server. I love hearing about life in this town which has a permanent population of under 500, but now of course there’s also the fires and evacuation to talk about.

Bernti’s does an interesting range of tapas-bar snack type food with inviting g-f options. This time, these included spicy edamame, calamari with compressed watermelon, and Thai fish cakes. We were happy to hear that they were expecting a couple of tables of locals in later … we got some quiet but they were going to have more custom!

Off to Crackenback Resort

With the TVT open, and with today, Wednesday, being the best forecast day of our time here, we headed off to the Diggings campground for our main walk of this stay, a return trip to Crackenback Resort. This track has two stages: Diggings to the historic 1934-built Bullocks Hut, then Bullocks Hut to Crackenback Resort. For the first stage to Bullocks Hut, there are three options – the Thredbo River Track, 2kms; the Thredbo Valley Track (TVT), 2.6kms; and the Muzzlewood Flats Track, 2.9km. Last time we did this walk, we went out via the TVT and back via the River. This time we decided to go out via the TVT and back via Muzzlewood. All up, the walk was about 10 kms, but gently undulating, so while it was twice the length of yesterday’s walk, it was about half as strenuous! With a break at Crackenback Resort for lunch, the outing took us about 3 hours 30 mins.

Cascades for dinner

Cascades restaurant belongs to the Thredbo Alpine Hotel. As a result it is open most nights of the week. Their food is usually good, and the service, like most here, friendly. Our favourite dish of the night was the green beans side with miso sauce. It was yum. We don’t plan to turn completely plant-based like Novak Djokovic, but there’s nothing like a good vegetable!

Not surprisingly, they had a few tables of diners, including, it seemed to us, two families comprising parents and a teenage son. We put this down to Thredbo’s Mountain Bike tracks. They are proving a good summer drawcard – particularly with the male of the species. That English walker we met on Merritt’s told us about a town in Tasmania which was reviving itself through the development of a Mountain Bike facility.

And so ended two more days in this peaceful corner of the world …

Some stills…

And a movie… at the start of Merritt’s