This morning Susan Marshall and Harita Davies ran and walked to the summit of Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko. At 2,228 metres above sea level, it is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, part of the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves. Kosciuszko National Park was dedicated in 1995 as a Sri Chinmoy Peace Park, joining the worldwide Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossoms family of international monuments, cities, countries and places of natural beauty dedicated to the ideals of peace espoused by the Founder of the Peace Run, Sri Chinmoy.
It was a nice windy day and, as you can see, we were pretty excited.
The sky was so beautiful all day.
Seamans Hut was built in 1929 and serves as a fun place to visit on days like today and an emergency shelter during inclement weather. In the winter there can be a lot of snow and the weather can quickly change.
The panoramic view of the surrounding Snowy Mountains is spectacular.
Lake Cootapatamba is the highest lake on the Australian mainland. It is a post-glacial tarn which was formed by ice spilling from Mount Kosciuszko's southern flank.
At the summit there was a strong wind but the views were spectacular!
Today is the 5th time the Peace Torch has visited Australia's highest point. It was first carried here by pioneering Australian peace runners, Prachar and Simahin, back in 1989. According to oral history, on that day they started in sunny blue skies and reached the summit in a white-out blizzard, the torch having been transformed into a block of ice.
As you can see, in comparison we got lucky with the weather!
The torch was actually lit, but it's hard to see the flame in the strong wind!
This friendly couple live in Sydney but hail from Nepal, and were thrilled to hear the Peace Run will be visiting their home country later this year.
We were delighted to run into Mike Edmondson, a professional landscape photographer, mountain guide, and longtime friend of the Peace Run and Sri Chinmoy Centre.
If you wonder where the name came from, the mountain was named by the Polish explorer Paweł Strzelecki in 1840, in honour of Polish-Lithuanian freedom fighter General Tadeusz Kościuszko, because of its perceived resemblance to the Kościuszko Mound in Poland.
Glacial remnants abound.
Gratitude for a stunning immersion into the vastness and beauty of ancient Australian wilderness.
"Nature’s beauty helps us
To be as vast as possible,
As peaceful as possible
And as pure as possible".
-Sri Chinmoy
