Blue Lake Revisited

You may recall our aborted walk to Blue Lake a few months ago. Well, it wasn't really aborted, it was just that when we got up the top, the fog was too dense to see anything. Too stubborn to admit defeat, we decided to have another crack while we were at Guthega last week.

Once again, weather conditions weren't exactly perfect. Ella was rugged up in her blue fluffy overall suit, plus a parka and completely encapsulated by the baby backpack. She couldn't see much of the view, but at least she was warm. The climb to Blue Lake is pretty solid, especially with an extra load on the back and a strong wind in our face, but we perservered. No treacherous snowdrifts this time around, and a bit over an hour after setting out we finally caught sight of the elusive Blue Lake.

Needless to say, on a day like this the lake was more grey than blue (see photo), and Nat couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the colour of the lake. Nonetheless, the scenery was spectacular as always.

We were on a pretty tight schedule, as we wanted to make it back to the lodge before Ella's lunchtime sleep, so headed straight back down again. Ella found the pace a little pedestrian on the way down, and thought she could do a better job herself, so decided to walk for some of it. This got boring pretty quickly so we reverted to helping her jump off every little mound or rock. At the finish we decided that we deserved a coffee at the Charlotte's Pass hotel -- and soon after we got there the heavens opened with torrential rain for 15 minutes. We sat there in comfort feeling pretty smug that we'd got the walk done early, while the hordes of unprepared, shorts-wearing Kosciuszko tourists were still out there on the mountain somewhere...