On top of the world down under

Vast as it is, Australia has no mountain ranges to rival the New Zealand Alps. and the highest point is under 2,300 metres. The upside is that it is a do-able excursion for ordinary hikers. Strangely, it's named after a Polish patriot who never visited australia. Mount Kosciuszko (note that for a future quiz night!) is about 2 1/2  hours drive from Canberra, in the Snowy Mountains National Park. This was our expedition for Friday. Corina was leaving nothing to chance. We had rations for about 3 days in our packs and she carried a first aid kit. We had jackets in case of the (unlikely as it turned out) surprise blizzard. The route to the mountain took us through forests, and valleys where immense gum trees had succumbed to the recent years of drought, their bleached skeletons reaching out from the dense green undergrowth. A chair lift gained us some height as we soared above green slopes that in winter become ski runs and from the top it was 6.5 km each way to the summit and back, achievable, but tiring. The landscape included granite tors intersperced with alpine meadows. A few flowers were still hanging on and muntain streams were full of tiny fish. The path was mostly over a steel walkway bolted to the rock and took us past the only glaciated formation in Australia (apparently that's important) and Australia's highest public toilet (genuinely important).  I was assured that the pose below was the traditional way to celebrate a successful ascent!

 We got back to the top of the chair lift a few minutes before it closed for the day
 and Leigh had the unenviable task of keeping awake as he drove home out of the mountain range.