No trip to the high country is complete without the pilgrimage up to Charlotte Pass; from our camp at Lake Jindabyne the road climbs up to the snow line and then through alpine tussock meadows, over Spencers Creek which is usually worth a stop for a few casts and lunch, past the track to Rainbow Lake, built by the early gold miners as a water supply, where the half hour walk is rewarded with a lovely fishing spot, past the parking bays where the skiers stop to put on snow chains, the road side guide posts change from white to orange and are two metres high for visibility in the snow, up to the highest point accessible by road. A boardwalk skirts these ancient gums and rocks leading to a small lookout with a view of Mt Kosciusko and the glacial tarn, Blue Lake, what a view.
The area around Charlotte pass is one of the last haunts of the Mountain pigmy-possum, Burramys parvus, once thought to be the rarest animal in the world, until it reappeared after 60 years of "extinction" with several populations found living within Kosiusko national park. It is the only specialised alpine and sub-alpine Australian mammal, although often sharing its habitat with the more widespread broad-toothed rat and antechinus. Burramys is the largest of the pigmy possums with an average weight rising from 40 grams to 70 grams as it fattens for winter, and grows to 28 cm including a prehensile tail of about 16 cm. more
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