Kossi Trip Xmas 2022 – Helen & Geoff

We’ve now returned from our 10 days in the Snowies. We were camped at Sawpit Creek which turned out to be an excellent campsite for us. Very quiet until the hordes arrived on Boxing Day. We got back Tuesday. The weather for us was of good extremes. It had snowed a couple of days before we arrived in the 17th. The first night or so were very cold and we had thermals on and a heater going. It had warmed up and by the time we left, we were driving from 19ºC up at Sawpit to 37ºC in Wagga.

We managed quite a lot of riding and walking. For the first 3 days we had winds with an E in them and managed three good rides up the road from Charlotte’s with the wind behind us. The first two of these were blocked by snow above Seamans Hut but on the third, the snow had gone and we got to Rawsons Pass (the highest point we can ride to on bikes). A front came through then and winds changed to having a W in them and strong, so we switched to walking. First a 9 km walk up to the Snowy River from Charlottes. Then a 9 km walk along the new walk from below Charlotte’s down to Guthega. On 24th, we walked up Bob’s Ridge from Dead Horse Gap. Then, Xmas day we rode up to Rawsons again for a Xmas morning tea. The final day was a 4 km walk from Charlottes down to the Snowy and up towards Blue Lake. A tough walk up from that Snowy River crossing back up to Charlotte’s.

At the Sawpit Creek campsite, we had a family of possums that raided tents and vans. We fed them each dusk on mango peel, cauliflower leaves, carrots and apple cores. Healthy looking animals. During the days, we had a family of Currawongs with two screaming kids that also like apple cores. The adults would take cores from our outside table.

The downside was lack of internet connection in the Van Park. No hotspot possible. I could connect just one device to their paid internet and although I could receive emails, I could not send any.

Although many of the pix in the gallery below look the same or very similar, I’m trying to demonstrate the rapid loss of snow daily. Each day – 18, 19, 20, 21 – has much less snow on the Main Range. For the Cascade Track, I’ve chosen several pix because I like the area a great deal.