The Snowy Mountains are the highest mountains of Australia. They have treeless alpine region and apparently really snow in the winter – at least when believing the numerous warning signs “slippery when frosty” along roads and pathways. There are several ski resorts with a lot of shops selling snowboards, skis, ski outfits and stuff even now in November, which is down here definitely not the begin of winter but summer. Snow seems to be something really special here since everything seems to have “snow” in its name. Even the radio channel you listen to is Snow-FM.
Here a few impressions of the alpine area of the Snowies:
Well, actually only in such a landscape picture. When looking closer into the vegetation - it's completely different. The only plants which I somehow recognized were the buttercups, Ranunculus although I know only the genus from Europe. The species R. graniticola, R. gunnianus and the endemic R. anemoneus I saw where completely new and exciting for me.
And of course, I climb the Mt Kosciuszko which is with 2228 m the highest mountain in Australia. It is situated in the Kosciuszko National Park which has a size of about 2500 km2. The first person to climb the mountain was the Polish explorer Strzelecki who named it after a Polish national hero - therefore it has such a difficult name. The area is special because this kind of ecosystem is rare in the hot and dry Australia - and it has a lot of species and special features which you can find nowhere else than here.
Funnily, eucalyptus (what else in Australia??) forms the tree line here: Snow gum trees.
Now in the middle of November spring is just starting in the highest parts and not all flowers are out now. Well - and it gets cold during the nights, even in the valleys .. at least the tent and my feet as well were frozen after a night out there.
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