Snowbound Chalets Thredbo Thredbo Village

... the 13km trek would take up to three hours. At Thredbo we found only one lift to be working so that added a good very steep kilometre to our walk. The last chairlift stopped at 430 so we had roughly 4 hours to make the round journey. The walk was undulating through the park, with icy streams flowing under the track in places, still from the melting snows! As we neared the summit and with time running out we came across to large snowfalls across ...

... the road into Thredbo – clearly this was sand right? Wrong! There are actually significant patches of snow up on the mountain but this late in the season most of it is dirty with wind blown sand. In fact it was not long before the elevated walkway disappeared into the first of several snow fields and I had to tramp properly for the first time on the trip.

The scenery was great. It seems I have found another patch of this great ...

... on random spin. This one is called 'Hey! You say I’m fab but you never play me’ and is a good example of the wonderful auto playlist function on the iPod. This one basically adds anything to the playlist that has a four or five star rating and a playcount of 3 or less. I love this feature you can make just the most obscure playlists up – but I suspect having 32000+ tracks helps as it has plenty of material to choose from.

... was a band on playing some Oasis after they'd split up only a couple of days earlier. I was geared up to get drunk, have a boogie and make myself a legend (or a laughing stock) but everyone else apart from Lucy and I seemed to slope off to bed early - looking back at this moment I guess you just can't afford to get drunk every night when you're backpacking and have to wait for special occasions like last nights together or a birthday perhaps but it was a Saturday night!

That night we headed up into australia's snowy mountians, which are so named as they have snow on them in the winter. which means we also had a chance to ski or snowboard! it was a pretty good deal on the snowboarding, and i really wanted to give it a go, so i signed up for it for the next morning!

that evening we were at the foot of the mountains, so it wasnt snowing, but was rather cold. but the place we were staying ...

... zijn we maar dicht bij elkaar gaan liggen...het was -4 graden. Niet verwonderlijk is het skiseizoen nog maar een maandje verwijdert. Damn, we zijn te vroeg gekomen. Door de grote brand van 2006, is spijtig genoeg 80% van het nationaal park vernield...dat hadden ze wel mogen schrijven in de gids. De brand van 2008-2009 is dan wel de dodelijkste in de Australische geschiedenis, die van 2006 heeft het meeste vernield.

... it at the end because today was one of my favourite days in Australia! We entered the ski station of Thredbo, quite empty and headed to the chairlifts. It is weird to get on those without your skis on! (J'ai pas pu m'empécher de chanter "étoile des neiges", forcément) It was amazing to see all this snow. I really did not expect to see any coming here but the top of the mountain was covered. None of the slope was open ...

... when safe. This was done with the greatest of respect all day and although the sportsbikes may have been frustrated stuck behind a scooter, they never hassled us. Some even gave us a wave and a beep as they passed. This is called good rider ettiquette and it makes for such a relaxed and pleasant day. Very few snuck up behind us without warning (Harleys can't sneak anywhere - they are too noisy) and only one idiot overtook Gary on the ...

... gt; But in the end it was an alright day. Having anthor person was disapointing. In the afternoon, we played outside, We skipped the flare run this year. And we went to bed early. Meta, Tom, Me and Amy &am p;nb sp; - Skiing Home

... having embarassed either ourselves or Pauli too much, we leave. We've had a very good time. Then, obviously rather squiffy, we head back to our hotel for a few snacks, and to keep chatting until late. Very pleasant conversation, until we start talking about the aboriginals - and what the white fella did to them. It turns into a full scale argument about what would have happen, about the hunting of aboriginals on Tazmania - and their forced education. Its a particularly unwise ...