Project VELAIA

 ”Der Berg ruft!” (German for “The mountain calls (for) you!”. And one thing is for sure: if there is one hill that should be called mountain (Berg) then its Kosciuszko (even though it has a strange name), with 2228m the highest peak on the continent Australia (but not in the country of Australia). So how could I resist as a passionate mountaineer?

In the morning I therefor went to Jindabyne, stocking food and water, cruising a bit on my bike through the city, controlling whether the internet access here is Australian standard (yes it is with really strange and high prices). Never had I expected to find that many ski and snowboard shops in a Australian town of that size (but on the other hand I´ve found many things here that were not the way I thought they would be, e.g. the weather, the traffic). The panorama view on the lake and the surrounding alpine environment is another plus for this place!

I left Jinda at 1pm very late, and even before the long uphill started stopped again to talk with 3 French in their camper bus. They had just finished eating otherwise I could have surely had some good good food again (as one of them had just finished studying cooking!) - typical when I meet French, I love it! And the other thing I really love is cycling uphill; no, no joke! I love to cycle in the European Alps where you can basically go uphill all day long - it brings me in a state of trance, just like the Buddha. From the 900m high Jindabyne it´s a relative difference in altitude of 1328m and in between there are 3 or 4 gaps where you descend 100 altimeters each. That´s why I ended up having 1622 altimeters even though I couldn´t take my bike up to the summit.

 

To get the previous image I had to first change the batteries, then cut some of the movies I had taken to get more storage on the memory card and take a second try because in the first I didn´t realize that ther was no space left on the camera - you see what I´m going through to bring the pictures to my readers  … but no, I don´t want a martyr crown for that! Beginning from Charlottes Pass there were no motorized vehicles allowed anymore and the so far really brilliant road got a dirt trail that was still perfect for the bike.

Just after the 2000m mark I passed Seamans hut and went then on to the highest public toilet in Australia (on Rawsons pass (I think)). From there on I had to walk as bikes were prohibited on the iron grid way up to the summit (probably to minimize human caused erosion). And on the 9km since Charlotte Pass I had only met a group of 4 men, so it was pretty empty.

I jogged the remaining 1.5km to the peak and met 2 young French which were just leaving as I arrived. They only had short T-Shirts and nothing to change and still 9km back to Charlotte Pass while I was already looking forward to my Windstopper Paclite jacket as the temperatures cooled down and there was a fresh wind blowing.

As soon as I was alone I started taking a 360° panorama (of which maybe 60° were not sharp enough, so I left them out when stitching later on). I enjoyed the loneliness and absolutely stunning view and atmosphere for some more minutes before jogging down to my parked bike again.

 And as the mountains were calling for me now they didn´t let me go, they kept me tied! It was just that beautiful that I decided not to go down to Jindabyne but stay near or in Seamans Hut. I was really happy, happy to jump!

In the hut I put my story into the log/guestbook and had a nice and absolutely quiet evening in this comfy small hut.

56,3km; 4:47h; 11,7km/h; 1622hm; max. Geschw. 72,5km/h

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