Hike and bike Thredbo NSW
I FELT MY HEART thumping as I tightened my grip around the handlebars of the mountain bike. I was at the bottom of Australia’s tallest mountain, and if I could only handle the induction course, soon I’d be 600m higher, and about to fly down the new six kilometre gravity-fed flow trail. The idea had seemed much more plausible just a few hours ago.
South-west from Sydney
A couple of days earlier, Fil, Alex and I had thrown our backpacks in the car and left work early, keen to beat traffic and get to Thredbo early. The plan was to fit in as much as possible into two days – summiting Mount Kosciuszko, mountain biking down it and then wrapping up the weekend with some relaxing fly-fishing.
The 500km road trip cleared the work-week worries from our minds and we arrived in Thredbo after dark, having taken the last leg from Cooma slowly, watching out for wildlife on the road. The sun had been in our eyes the past hour, illuminating every curve in the land, as well as each twisted snow gum with its branches raised in welcome. We dropped our bags off at the hotel, rugged up and headed to the pub for a quick beer with Dawn, who was showing us around the mountain over the weekend.
It only took a few minutes before we were adopted by friendly locals, and before we knew what had happened we’d been invited and taken along to a party upstairs. We stayed long enough to wish a happy birthday to Danny – finding out that he was one of the MTB gurus who’d be teaching us in a couple of days – and meet a few more of the locals. It was the perfect introduction to a town that turned out to be as welcoming and warm in summer as it seems in winter.
Read the full article in the January/February 2014 issue of Australian Geographic Adventure. On sale now.
