Snow capped mountains in Australia???

Well, I may be using the term 'mountain' loosely, but last weekend I went on a trip with the Monash Bushwalking and Outdoor Club to Mt. Feathertop. Feathertop is about a 5-6 hr drive from Melbourne (I told the folks that if I drove that far from Portland I would be in California :) and, at 6300ft, it is the 2nd tallest in Victoria (for comparison, the tallest in Oz is Mount Kosciuszko, at 7310 feet). It was a good trip with a good bunch of folks, and as usual in Melbourne, it was basically a mini UN summit, with a German, a Malaysian, a Norwegian, a Canadian, some Americans, and of course a few Aussies in attendance (one nicknamed Dingo, the 2nd of which I've met in under a month).

The skies were ultra clear, which meant good visibility, sunny and warm (mid 60s) during the day but bitterly cold (upper 20s) at night. Oddly enough, my first glimpse of Australian snow and sub-freezing temps coincides with the officical beginning of winter here. Thankfuly there was a warming hut complete with wood burning stove near our campsite, which, in combination with the Johnny Walker, was enough to temporarily keep off the chill. The only other group there was a bunch of old timers celebrating a woman's 70th b-day - if I'm still able to do a trip like that when I'm 70 I will be one happy camper (get it? man, that's really bad.....).

In other news, we just bought flights up to Cairns to see our buddy Nielsen in about a month. Cairns and beyond is what they refer to as the 'tropical north', and is basically known for jungle, crocs, and the Great Barrier Reef, and we have all of these on our 'things to do' list during our visit. So, in terms of travels, we are looking at Cairns in June, the US in August, Alice Springs (central Oz, with the big rock, aka Uluru) in Sept, then NZ in Oct. We are definitely headed to the poor house, but we're gonna have a blast getting there....:)

Cheers,
Sweany