Hello everyone! I am writing in English for the benefit of my few English readers. You see, this weekend we went up to the mountain with one goal in mind - to climb up the highest mountain in Australia. If you are not interested in the full story - here is the short of it. We did it. you can close the browser now or go to a more interesting site (yes...you know the one I mean...the one hidden at the bottom of your favorites...).
Who is "we"?
(No, its not that my English is so bad, I am just a Peter Sellers fan)
We are the Team of the Quarter for last quarter in Unique World (the company I work for). The team who works in Canberra won this because, well... we are the best. Honestly! What did we win? the company gave us a budget for a fun weekend. So instead of staying home and drinking on the weekend, we decided to drive 3 hours to find a hotel and drink. oh, yeah - and climb to the highest mountain in Australia (if you don't know that already you have not been paying attention!)
So the people involved (aka - the culprits) were:
- Gayan (Team leader)
- Brett Coster (Team elder)
- Mundeep Rehill (the only one who cared enough to actually do research and find a hotel and book it)
- Ganeshan (If you listen closely you can hear him. otherwise, no one knows he is there)
- Mario (the Colombian, not the Mexican - which is a shame, since I suspect the mexican can hold his drink better)
- yours truly (who am I kidding - everyone can hold his drinks better than me - dont throw stones at other people houses when your living in a glass house)
A night of xbox & A breakfast for champions:
It all begun with an email telling me to go buy a bag of 10$ chips. After my protests that chips are usualy much cheaper Mundeep explained to me that he meant poker chips. Hurray - I will finally play poker like a professional!. I bought the chips on Friday, and went home to get ready for the trip. Mundeep, Mario and Antin - their friend from DOTARS joined me at around 19:00, bringing his xbox360 and we commenced to play into the night. At around 02:00 in the morning we realized that we need to wake up in 6 hours and decided to go to bed. However, this was about the time I asked Mundeep (who came to sleep in my spare room so we can leave together in the morning) where is his camera (a Canon 400d - amazing)?
oh no...
Well, Antin agreed to drive to Mundeep's house to get it (since he had to drop off Mario anyway, and then drive to his home which is close to me), and Mundeep and I played xbox soccer for another hour while waiting for him. Time in bed - 03:00.
Wake up - 07:00 - pack the bags, refuel the care, wait for Gayan and the other guys to arrive and we are off!
My new GPS was on, telling me exactly how far are we from our first destination - the village Cooma. Cooma is a village that seems to make all its income from renting ski equipment during season. There doesnt seem to be anything else there. We stopped there for breakfast in a place that Gayan really likes. From how our breakfast looks you can understand why:
A pineapple & bacon chicken burger. It lasted about 3 minutes on the plate the poor thing.
We shopped for ingredients for lunch and liquids for dinner and then moved on. We didnt know it yet, but we were going to regret the stop in Cooma. but for the moment, we were well fed, well packed and with a prospect of a poker night, a carton of wine, 18 bottles of beers and a big bottle of burbon - we were happy.
The way to Thredbo is long and windy. If it werent for my GPS we would probably find it without any problems since you dont need to make any turns on the way. As it were, the GPS was truely helpful until we actually got to the turn to the village itself. It then told me to skip the first turn into the village and continue on. I did as commanded (one does not argue with a computer. One has learned that the hard way when one had to buy a whole new computer after an especially heated arguement with a modem back in the 90's) and then the GPS told me to turn left into the village. The only problem was that the turn the GPS was showing didnt exist. When I continued on past the non-existant turn the GPS corrected itself (without even appologizing) and showed another turn ahead - this time one that did exist. This was a bad omen that I should have recognized. ahh...if only I turned around then and there and went home...
The Climb
We put our bags in the hotel (Alpine) and the drinks in the fridge. We actually had the best room in the hotel - "The Loft". This looks like a perfect place to be in the ski season. The loft has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and each of the bedrooms has 2 beds, some of which are double beds. Perfect for a group of skiers for a week. The bathrooms also sport a washer&drier so you can wash your skii outfit everyday yourself and not depend on expensive hotel services. I was told that if I want to get that room in the ski season I need to order it last year.
The hotel's location is also excellent - right in front of the ski lifts. We got out, put our gear on our backs (I insisted that everyone gets a bottle of water in his hand in addition to the 6 pack of water I had in my bag...military training or common sense. pick one!) and were joking with each other. Little did we know that this was going to be the longest day of our lives.
Still smiling - Gayan, Ganesha, Brett, Mario & Mundeep. I hid behind the Camera.
We went across the street and got on the cable car.
This took us from 1300 meter above sea level to 1900m above. that is 600m differance! nice...
Thredbo village from above, with hieght differance sign
The time - 13:15.
We started walking on the trail, on the way to the highest point in Australia - 2228m. that sounds easy - only 300m to go up. The only problem is - its 7.5km away.
On the way we just walked:
we danced:
And made a commercial for Unique World:
after 4 km all the dancing and joking got to some of us (those who were dancing and joking):
We convinced Gayan that he should go on with us and he agreed to stand up again and walk on (mainly because me and Brett were carrying the lunch on our backs and refused to give it to him until we got to the peak). Gayan would regret this moment on the rocks later on. You will see more pictures like that if you continue reading (this would be a good time to point out that this site is sponsored by Google ads! click an ad and I get 1 cent! I made 100$ this year alone!)
On and on went the trail, and I have to say - as one of peaks of the world, this must be the easiest one to climb. All the way is paved with iron mesh which makes sure you dont slip unless your boots are wet. I did the all way with sandals (a fact I will regret before this day is over). Now I only have to climb the Kilimanjaro, and I will have done 2 highest continent peaks!
notice the snow? it was 30 degrees!!!
We finally reached the goal of our quest. The highest point in Australia:
We found the highest flower in Australia hiding among the rocks:
We quickly found out what it was hiding from. Apparantly the highest point in Australia has what every other point in Australia has, only 2000 times worse - flies.
A wise person who goes on this trip will look like this:
He is a very wise man - he was checking his watch. Why? you are about to find out...
We on the other hand looked like two handed windmills. We kept flapping our hands and clapping and doing rude movements, and none of it worked. We then decided to eat quickly and get the hell back to the hotel and away from the flies.
But not before we take turns at being the tallest people in Australia!
We started the walk back happy, thinking we are leaving the flies behind. Little did we know that they were using us to hitch a ride back to civilization
Mario and the flies. I think they were trying to join forces and team up to pick him up and fly him away to their cave and eat him.
If it werent for the extra weight of the flies we may have made it. but as it were, they slowed us just enough:
Find the problem with this picture. And no, its not the fact that Mundeep was trying to add his watch to the picture when there is clearly already one there...
Yes, we were late. The lifts were closed and we were stuck 600m above our hotel on a direct vertical line. We were after a 15km walk already, and we drank all our water. There was nothing left to do, but call a taxi.
After we tried several taxi agencies and got several angry operators telling us that "no, we dont have a helicopter taxi", we decided that if we start walkin, we could be in our room drinking burbon by 19:30. So down we went, with no water, no food, and all of our spirits somewhere down in the hotel room (inside the fridge).
At the begining we stuck to the dirt road,
but quickly realized that it goes round and round, making the way five times as long as it really is. If only we had a parachute, we could just float down.
So we cut through the ski slopes themselves:
If you are ever tempted by walking down a ski slope in summer, take my word for it - dont! If god had wanted us walking down ski slopes, he wouldnt have invented ski, mountain bikes and parachutes. My only worry is that the pictures you are about to see dont do justice to the steepness of the situation.
Me and Mundeep were waiting for Gayan and Brett to climb down the last slope
We took the pictures of him while waiting for Gayan and Brett to catch up
when we had the good luck of seeing this amazing parrot who just wanted to pose for us
The parrot then flew away and we looked back to see how Gayan and Brett are doing
We gave up on waiting and went on past the bridge
and into the hotel.
Poker Night
Poker night began after a good dinner n the hotel's resteraunt. We opened up the beer, and rested our tired legs around the table armed with chips (both kinds).
The game was texas hold'em, and I proved myself a worthy oponent even against veterans like Mundeep and Gayan, when I won the 20$ pot despite Gayan's insistance that I keep drinking red wine. Apperantly even with half a bottle of red wine in me I can still bluff.
Gayan and Mundeep won second & third prizes - 10$ each:
Brett turned out to be a very sore loser, and when I suggested teaching them a game called "Assassin" he took it too literarily:
At around 01:30 our esteemed leader finished his burbon bottle and vanished from sight. After a quick search of the rooms we discovered him in the only single room, passed out:
I guess after a day of excersise, three beers and a bottle of burbon do that.
The rest of us went on and I tought them another card game - whist. Its a fun game, and people cought on quickly - Mundeep and Ganeshan scored higher than me...
We went to bed at half past three, knowing that to get breakfast we have to get to the resteraunt at 09:30
Breakfast was big and heavy, and only me, Mundeep and Brett enjoyed it. The others were sleeping off their hangovers.
Originaly we had big plans for sunday - we brought tennis rackets, we thought about hiring some roller blades or going rock climbing, but strangely enough none of us could walk. Even walking down the stairs to the lobby took all of our efforts, and we considered jumping from the window to the car park instead.
We had to change our plans, and the vote was - "go home!". Mundeep suggested we take the long way through the mountains instead of going back the way we came. We split into two cars again, and drove away into the mountains.
The mountain road is long. very long. extremely long. After half an hour of driving 60kph we stopped by a creek and Gayan asked gently how much longer is it. When we told his its around 300km of narrow road with turns every 100m, he and the rest of the guys in his car voted to take the short and boring way back. ME and Mundeep moved on.
The snowy mountains are amazing, even when there is no snow. And I must say that when you are in a car, the lack of flies makes them even more pretty.
There are vallies
And creeks
And lakes
Most of the trees are ecaliptuses, and most of them are bare on the bottom, makeing them look like bones.
Others are green all around and in some places there are ferns who would have made it look like a rain forest, if only there was any sign of water around.
For one of the places we wanted to get to, we had to drive through 10 km of dirt road. At first I drove like I usualy drive in a dirt road. Then I suddenly remembered I no longer have a company car, and I actually own the car I am driving in. Well...say good bye to the mint condition!
At one point we went through flatlands, where its clearly bovine country. Suddenly there were cows everywhere, including a real ozzie cowboy:
The End
Well, we got to Canberra at around 19:00, and I still had to pick up Mundeep's xbox from my place, then drive him back to town and drive home again. So after two days without sleep I just couldnt wait to get to my bed and sleep it off. I woke up this morning and found it impossible to go down the stairs. I had to slide down on the rails - my legs were so sore.
This was the store of the TOQ2 2006's trip to Thredbo. Maybe someday we will tell our grandchildren about this (Brett first) and laugh. For now, we are just glad its over - I got a call from Gayan today telling me he is still hung over.
Next time we win some corporate funds I vote paintball. Shooting ourselves seem like such a good idea right now.
To see all pictures from the trip, visit my photo album
Important Note - the author has taken liberties with the truth, and certain facts about members of the "Unique World Mount Kosciuszko Climbing Expedition" were merely embelishments to make the story more believable. The truth was so unbelievable that I was afraid people would scoff at me. If I hurt anyone's feelings I am truly sorry even if I dont know about it yet.
