So, we summited Kosciuszko! Highest mountain in Australia, at 2228m, and the 5th, and by far the smallest, of our Seven Summits. Despite the horrible weather forecast, and waking up to pouring rain, by the time we set out the rain had stopped and it didnt start again until we were about 10 minutes from getting back to our room at the end of the morning. I say morning because thats quite literally how long it took us to climb it.
As decided, we didnt take the chairlift, and instead walked up the Merritts Nature Track, a walk that the guide book said would take 2-3 hours to come DOWN… Their timings were quite off, to say the least. We got to the top of the chairlift in 1.5 hours (with fairly burning thighs though from a lot of steps) having come up a tiny little trail through some really, really pretty scenery. We were both soaked from the water droplets the plants had acquired from the previous rainfall, but it was welcomed as we were both very warm.
The trail from there was on a metal grid for the majority of the time, very much catered for anyone and everyone to get to the top. The scenery was sparse but with some stunning views at times, and the nice path made this a very pleasant walk! We took lots of pictures at the top, with Huawei, Mashreq and Emirates flags too, but realised when we got down that this was the first of our summits that we didnt get one of the two of us together – I suppose it would have been difficult both climbing up onto that stone tower at the same time. So youll have to do with a picture of just me Im afraid. Sorry Mum and Kelly!
Not quite sure what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day now, we kind of expected it to take longer than 4.5 hours. Maybe well go hunt down the world biking champion, apparently hes here at the moment. Theres the biking national championships right outside our window, its brilliant! Or maybe not, the rain just restarted with a vengeance.
Hope everyones well, bye for now.