Day 1 – Thursday 2nd January 2014
The first problem was getting to the start. Outside the ski season, which runs from June to October, the nearest place to the start of the route which can be accessed via public transport is Cooma, around 80kms away. Getting to Cooma took the best part of a day and involved 2 bus journeys, plus a ride from Sydney's north down to the Greyhound terminus at Central station. The Greyhound service took me to Canberra, where there was a 3 hour wait for the connecting NSW Countrylink service to Cooma. Both buses were quite full, with people returning home after the New Year holiday, but I had no difficulty getting my bike in the luggage hold, fortunately.
While in Canberra I took the opportunity to have a bit of a ride around the city, and Parliament House is always a nice place to visit:
Arriving in Cooma around 6pm I found the local campsite and having set up my tent, headed into town for a tasty fish dinner at the Alpine Hotel.
Distance cycled today 40kms
Cooma
Day 2 – Friday 3rd February 2014
I set off around 9am and reached headed south along the Kosciuszko Highway towards Jindabyne. Just outside Cooma there is a memorial to the passengers in the Southern Cloud, a plane which crashed nearby in 1931, with fragments of the plane on display:
20kms further is this unusual metal sculpture by the roadside. There's no descriptive plaque explaining what it's meant to represent.
After another 40kms, across rolling countryside with an altitude varying between 800m and 1000m, Lake Jindabyne came into view:
I spent a couple of hours in Jindabyne, a place I'd visited back in 2010 during my Melbourne to Sydney ride, having lunch, buying a detailed map of the Kosiuszko National Park, and getting supplies for the next few days, as there are no shops or restaurants between here and Thredbo, the final destination of the LP route.
Then I headed in a north westerly direction, climbing sharply for about 15kms, reaching an altitude of 1600m, another 650m higher than Jindabyne, at Rennix Gap:
From here it was about another 5kms downhill to the campsite at Island Bend, near the site of a former village built for construction workers during the building of the massive Snowy River hydroelectric project, and long since abandoned. It was nearing 8pm by the time I arrived and there was just time to pitch the tent and have dinner before it got dark. I was expecting it to be very cold at this altitude – around 1350m – but it turned out to be quite a mild night.
Distance today 100kms
Day 3 – Saturday 4th January 2014
There was about 8kms of tarmac road from Island Bend to Guthega Power Station, beside the Snowy River, where the route follows the Schlink Pass, a dirt track which quickly becomes very steep, climbing over 200m in little over 2kms.
The high point of the ride is here – at 1804m:
The route passes a number of emergency huts for use when people get stranded on the mountain – it can snow here any time of year. This very remote area is called the Jagungal Wilderness:
The route then followed the Geehi fire trail, with about 14km of fairly smooth, highly enjoyable downhill:
Then there were a few short, but intense climbs towards Olsen's Lookout, which gave excellent views of the western faces of the Kosiuszko Main Range:
It was then mostly downhill towards Geehi campsite, a popular camping area beside the Swampy Plain River:
It was a pleasant place to camp, the only bad aspect being the huge blood-sucking horseflies that were everywhere and which didn't seem to be repelled at all by Aerogard spray. I did manage to have a refreshing dip in the river and it wasn't too cold. The altitude here is about 400m.
Distance today 72kms
Day 4 – Sunday 5th January 2014
To quote from the LP guide, today's section of the ride “serves up a supreme fitness challenge”. Having ridden it, I cannot disagree with this.
The figures speak for themselves – the day starts at 400m, climbs to 800m, descends back to 600m then ascends to nearly 1600m. That's 1400m of ascent.
The whole section of route is along the Alpine Way, and the climbing starts immediately – 400m ascent in the first 9kms of riding, through a eucalypt forest. Then there's a long downhill towards cleared country surrounding the Murray River, which forms the border between NSW and Victoria. At 20kms, the Tom Groggin picnic area was a good place to rest before the next big ascent:
From here it was another 11kms to the top of the climb. There were great views to be had, particularly at the Pilot lookout:
The peak is reached at Dead Horse Gap (1580m):
….after which it was downhill all the way to Thredbo, arguably Australia's premier Alpine resort and one of the few that are open all the year round.
Distance today 46km – not far in terms of distance, but still a very tough day's cycling.
Day 5 – Monday 6th January 2014
It was time to take a break from cycling, so I spent the day walking to the top of Mt Kosiuszko, at 2228m Australia's highest peak. Most people take the Kosiuszko Express chairlift, which starts in Thredbo village at 1350m, up to the top station at 1930m, and walk from there, but I decided to walk the whole way.
The path up to the top of the chairlift is extremely steep and it took about an hour and a half to get up to the top station. I had a much-needed drink in the restaurant there (which is Australia's highest) then continued on to the summit along the very well marked walkway. It's another 13km return walk from here but very easy, and the scenery is of course magnificent:
There were traces of snow still remaining:
I reached the summit around 1pm and enjoyed a brief moment at the top of Australia:
Then it was back down the same way. On the left of this photo, going past Australia's highest toilet, is the path leading down to Perisher Valley:
After all that effort, I felt justified in riding the chairlift back down, enjoying the views overThredbo on the way:
Day 6 – Tuesday 7th January 2014
Time for more cycling! Thredbo is renowned as a mountain biking centre, with a number of downhill trails accessed from the top of the chairlift. I'd never done proper MTB before so had to do an induction course, then I was able to get my hands on a Giant Reign:
I managed to do the Kosiuszko Flow Trail 7 times during the day, every one was really scary but hugely exciting. By the end I managed to descend all the way without stopping or putting a foot down. There are some incredibly tight, rocky corners, lots of trees to avoid, several ramps, and other obstacles which make this a real adrenaline rush.
Despite a few tumbles I managed to survive the day intact! I would love to return here and do this trail again some day.
Day 7 – Wednesday 8th January 2014
It was time to ride back to Cooma, from where I would get the bus back to Canberra then on to Sydney.
It was a misty morning, unlike the clear weather of the past few days:
On the way out of Thredbo there's a good view of the area where the tragic landslip took place back in 1997 with the loss of 18 lives:
It was downhill pretty much all the way to Jindabyne, 33kms away. By the time I arrived there all the clouds had vanished and it was a beautiful sunny day. I sat by the statue of Count Strezlecki, and watched a water-skiing contest taking place on the lake:
After a short steep climb out of Jindabyne there was another great view of the lake:
Then it was back to Cooma along the route I'd ridden last week.
I arrived in Cooma at 5pm, having ridden 95kms.
It's been a tough but very enjoyable week. I've been very lucky with the weather, there has been no rain and temperatures have been mild. Definitely a excellent trip!
Total trip distance 353kms.
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