Mt Buffalo (Ryan)

We were driving up to the Horn, Mt Buffalo on a windy road. There were many cyclists riding up the side of the mountain. We knew that as we went higher, the temperature would drop, and I was watching it closely, as I was only wearing shorts! Before we headed up the mountain it was 16 degrees. By the time we got to the top the temperature had dropped to 3.

At the top we got out of the car. It was windy, cloudy and cold. We walked over to a little hut, looking out over the alps. Many great big mountains were filled with dead, white snow gums, from the fires that had been through previously as well as newly grown green snow gums.

We started up the stairs, a rocky, narrow trail leading up to the lookout. It was cold, and cloudy but not raining. I yelled out, “Snow, it’s snowing!!” There was a tiny fall of light, white snowflakes. As we climbed higher, the rocks became slippery as we found hideouts to shelter from the wind. It was bloody freezing but we managed to reach the top.

There was a platform, when you went out on it, the wind would slash across your face and the snow was falling heavily. As we walked slowly down we kept slipping on the newly coated rocks. I adopted mums hat and coat for the little journey. We finally reached the bottom again, and we were relieved to get back into the car, with the heater on.

We drove back slower than the way up and felt very sorry for all the cyclists who rode all the way up the mountain only to have to ride very slowly and carefully back down.