Tongarino Pass

21st December 

It was freezing this morning when I woke up. Put 6 layers of clothing on and set off for the carpark, after helping a French guy with a flat battery.......that sounds wrong 🤣

He had jump leads & asked if I could help with a jump start, which of course I did. 

Got on the shuttle bus at the car park & everyone had proper gear - good boots & some people were wearing ski gear......there's me in my thin wind proof pac-a-mac & crap trainers that I got for free.

The message from the shuttle company had said the pass was open (it had been shut for two days) and was as follows:

Temperatures are between 1°C-7°C with wind chill between -6°C-2°C. Average wind speed is between 29-33km/h with wind gusts up to 65km/h. Visibility is below 60m until 10am however this is expected to clear by 11am with visibility greater than 5000m.

Queuing for the toilets at the start, I got chatting to an Irish lady, Ailene, who was there with her husband, son & daughter & daughter's two friends. .....I asked if I could tag along with them, & they adopted me.

Blimey, those Irish can talk!!

It was fun though, being in a group and the walk was not as hard or cold as was made out to be, although we were lucky with the weather!

Scenery was stunning:

You can see the lava flow

Red Crater

The emerald lakes

There was a lot of loose gritty/sandy rock coming down a steep bit towards the lakes. One of the girls fell & cut her hand.

We ate lunch at this lake:

An impact Crater from a rock blown out at force:

So many colours in the rock:

This from red oxide:

There was a lot of gentle winding downhill after the summit & the sun really came out so it got quite warm.

Poor Ailene fell & cut her hand too.

The last bit was through trees and we reached the end & the carpark at around 3.15 pm so under 7 hours (they estimate 6-8)

Said goodbye to the family then back to the same Campsie for a third night as I didn’t feel like driving too far

A good day.