Porcupine Rock walk

After our challenging walk the day before we wanted to take it easy on Sunday.  Maxie and Rod headed to the Wild Brumby Distillery in the Perisher Valley (for the coffee) and the girls voted for a relaxing day at the Lodge. We started out in  a leisurely way, late morning, and completed the relatively easy 3 klm walk from the Perisher Valley Reservoir to enjoy the spectacular views from Porcupine Rocks. There was a bit of haze around but you could still enjoy fantastic views here of the Thredbo River Valley, Bullocks Flat and Lake Crackenback. This is one of our favourite short walks in this area.

We were feeling pretty good at this stage so made the decision to walk the 6.4 klm track back to Charlotte Pass from here, leaving our car in the car park near the cafe (closed today) and the chairlift.

This "track" is a ski trail, marked by ski poles, but there is no actual walking track. At first it is pretty easy, as we made our way over the soft tussocks of alpine grass and wildflowers (including native orchids) and admiring the rocky outcrops and fire damaged treescapes all along the escarpment.

But it gets much harder. We struggle to find our footing in the springy, boggy, wombat holed, alpine heathland. It goes on for kilometres like this. I fall over a few times but it's like falling into a foam springy (prickly) bed - very difficult to get up from too! It's soft on the feet but very hard on the legs, knees and ankles - harder than yesterday in many respects.

It takes us HOURS to make our way back criss crossing across the ridge trying to keep our ski poles in sight while trying to find a sure footing on the ground.

We were so happy to eventually cross this pretty creek (bubbling down to join the Snowy River) and see Charlotte Pass village in the near distance.

Our walk was a challenging 4 and half hour marathon - and no stops after our break at Porcupine Rocks because there were so many ants nests spread around the heaths and springs along this trek.

There were so many times I thought how easy and picturesque this track would be in winter, covered in snow and we were all on skis.

These weekends at Charlotte Pass are a great opportunity to share some great times and great walking challenges and rewards together as well as some fantastic food and wines in good company.  This weekend had all of that.