Mt Koscuiszko, 2228m. The point in Australia and indeed the whole Australian continent depending who you believe. Disputable possibly one of the 7 summits. The other accepted one for Australisia is Cartesen (spelling?) Pyramid in Indonesia which is higher but according to some is part of Asia. I'm not sure how Mt Cook in New Zealand fits into this. It's certainly higher than Kozzy, does that possibly mean its not part of Australasia? Definitely need to google this. 

I sit writing this in the highest cafe in Australia, 1940m up looking out across the Thredbo valley. This morning was one of the best in a while. At the risk of sounding less humble than usual and slightly proud, I flew up Kosciuszko like no tomorrow.    The summit was busy, a steady stream of joe blogs pounding the 6.5km path from the top of the chairlift (at the cafe) to the summit with only a few hundred meters elevation gain to the top. That's the easy way to the top, expensive too. The chairlift costs $32 and for what? I instead took the healthier, cheaper, more rewarding and er manly? option of walking from the village, on the hardest path I might add (according to the rangers). I saw no one else walking up from the village that day so rewarded myself with some extra man points and a serving of ice cream in the cafe where I now sit. 

It's a stunning walk from the village too, more people should do it. I guess a lot of people get the cable car up then walk back down. You ascend through birch forests and steep mountain gullies for 600m ascent to get the cable car station. From there its a further 6.5km to the summit, a surprisingly long slog actually made slightly painful on the feet by the metal grid walk way taking you most of the route. It might be joe blogs friendly but it's a pain in the ass and looks bloody awful. In all to get to the summit it was 11km of walking and 920m of ascent all in 2hrs 40 minutes, pretty proud of that actually. 

The summit was pretty cloudy but cleared during the descent for awesome views back on the mountain and to the valley below. So here I sit in the cafe with my ice cream. Staying in the Thredbo yha tonight which looks pretty sweet. The village has its annual blues music festival this weekend so will no doubt be checking some of that out too. 

A retired couple on the trail said that they rarely check for cable car tickets on the way back down. Indeed I watched a few people approach the station and they were directed by the attendant just to board the next car. I decided to try a little bit of cable car sneaking myself. And it worked!! The views of the valley were awesome and it was much less painful than the usual downhill trek. I distinctly much prefer walking uphill than down. I sense more cable car sneaking ahead. 

As is becoming a common theme on this trip I managed to randomly return to Thredbo in time to catch something really quite special. As I'm sure I've said already, this weekend was also the blues music festival and at the outdoor venue this afternoon was Jeff Lang (spelling?) performing. Never heard of him before but he was introduced as one of Australia's finest song writers and guitarists so I got the feeling that I perhaps should of. He was unbelievable on the guitar. Simply astonishing and this was a intimate and pretty raw gig. No techies, just him, his band and his effects pedals. His acoustic playing was incredible, definitely a name to research when I'm back. It wasn't lost on me that I wouldn't of made this if I didn't do some chair lift sneaking! 

That high was dampened somewhat literally half way through his set with a mighty downpour washing him off. Ah well, time to hit the hostel. Nice place too, reminds me a lot of a warmer Aviemore. Sharing a dorm with a German tonight, Andreas I think his name is, he's just spent 6 weeks in Sydney on a language course and is now travelling around Australia for 3 months. Apparently his bosses at the steel factory in Germany are ok with it!  It's stopped raining now too so time to try and book my next leg of the journey. May just have to wing it though, which isn't ideal since hostels and trains are usually pretty busy.