As I have done for many years, last Christmas I went bushwalking, Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), Kiandra to Dead Horse Gap. This trip was different.

From Townsend looking at the Corryong fire and Khancoban, lost in the smokeAll pictures by Stephen Lake

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The day before the walk started I went to Tumut, 46 °C, unpleasant. The drive from Tumut to Kiandra was in moderate to thick smoke from fires burning in many places in NSW. The start of the walk was also smoky, not especially enjoyable. It was very disappointing that there were no views for this and most days.

Up onto the ridge, past Selwyn, Four Mile Hut, Tabletop and then down to Happys Hut, a lovely place to camp. It was a late start, hot day and late finish, somewhat exhausting. Next day I went to Boobee Hut, also nice. I camped all nights and used the huts for cooking. Then to Mackays Hut and Cesjacks Hut. This day was somewhat confusing in the smoke, with visibility about a kilometre. I later found out that the fires were getting bigger.

There was a side-trip to Jagungal with a second night at Cesjacks, then Tin Hut, getting caught in a lot of slow exhausting scrub following the ridge. Next time I'll stick to the valleys. My suggested route – and I have not done some of this – is from Cesjacks up Doubtful Creek, keeping high on the east bank in hopefully light scrub going south to the valleys north-west and west of Bulls Peaks. Then go south, Mailbox on the right, Brassys on the left. This should be mainly open. Most creeks were dry, and I was fortunate to find one near the Brassys.

On a hot day after too much scrub it was a relief to reach Tin Hut. Until here I had met just one walker, near Tabletop on the first day. Tin Hut had a family in from Mawsons and two very fit blokes who came from a camp just below the summit of Jagungal, a long day.

From Tin Hut it was more scrub to Gungartan Pass (two people camped near there), Gungartan, Schlink Pass (maybe 30 people), Dicky Cooper Bogong, over Granite Peaks and Consett Stephen Pass. From here I went off the track due west to the ridge, then south on the old SMA track to Tate, a flat exposed campsite just below the summit, with water in a small runoff from a snow drift just before camp. There are pools a short way south-east of the summit, just off the track but hard to spot from the track. I cannot say if the pools would be viable in late summer.

The next day was an on-off track to Twynam (hordes of people), as always marvelling at the SMA track through the boulder fields. I saw a few good lines, maybe grade 15-18, but it's a long way to walk to climb rock. From Twynam there's a major track all the way to Muellers Pass. While the new steel boardwalk between Carruthers and above Albina Lake makes it easy to maintain a fast pace, it's quite hazardous in the strong gusty winds, perhaps 60-70 km/hour.

Tate to Jagungal, 7.05 am, much smoke

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I was nearly blown off a few times, and day trippers were crouching to avoid a tumble of up to a metre to the ground.

Townsend was also exposed, what turned out to be my last summit camp, and like most days did not lead to decent dusk or dawn pictures, just smoke. At 7.05 pm a day walker came through, very casually asking how to get to the summit. I showed him the track and said that in the strong gusty winds the summit rocks could be a bit dicey. He went up, and as I was beginning to get worried about him he came off the summit going nearly due east, and I called him to the track. If he had kept going he would have gone down a steep snow drift.

After dusk I saw a fire to the left of Khancoban, which was hidden by smoke during the day, but I knew where it was. Later I learned that the fire was Corryong.

Breaking camp was hard; the tent and small items of gear were caught in the stiff wind. At Rawson Pass, like other walkers, I hid in the toilets, away from the wind. I decided to go to Seamans Hut for some hot food and a brew. I also wanted to think about my proposed last two nights, Rams Head and just above Dead Horse Gap, from where I was going to Corryong. Some bushwalkers had mobile phones, and the RFS website looked grim. Seamans Hut was nice, sheltered. A hot drink was lovely after being unable to use a stove.

Around noon NP&WS rangers instructed us to go east to Charlotte Pass – the bushfires were getting serious. That night I bivvied in Jindabyne, smoke swirling, images ethereal in the gloom. This was not the New Year's Eve I planned!

I got a lift north but we were turned back near Adaminaby, what I later found to be a massive fire bearing down on KNP. Back to Cooma, then much slow traffic to Canberra, and a late train to Melbourne, arriving quite tired.

A few weeks later the destruction is very apparent. Kiandra, Selwyn, Four Mile Hut, Happys Hut gone. Massive chunks of NSW

and Victorian national parks and wild places gone. Too many people dead, too many houses lost, too many small towns blasted, too much infrastructure gone. My path was ash. The Tumut road was cut, from the freeway and going south to Kiandra. Further afield the Blue Mountains, the Budawangs, Bogong High Plains region, and much of the AAWT were burnt. I've walked in these places for decades.

KNP has been part of my bushwalking life since 1973. Ski trips include one starting at Bradneys Gap to the old Pretty Plain Hut, Grey Mare Hut and across to Cesjacks Hut, out of the park to Nordheim. One day I skied from Albina Hut to Tin Hut, finishing after dark, wrecked. Bad weather has driven me off Rams Heads, the Main Range and Jagungal. I've hidden in huts waiting for the tempest to cease. I've camped in remote places, watching the sun set, glad to be there. Sunsets and sunrises from the summits of Jagungal, Townsend, Rams Head and elsewhere have been truly lovely. Many of you will have done this sort of thing in KNP and elsewhere, and have the emotional attachment I have.

Now KNP and other parks are blackened shells of what was. Huts are gone or scorched. The AAWT is compromised. This is deeply disturbing. As I was being driven from Charlotte Pass I was nearly crying at the scale of the destruction.

In October 2017 a song of mine was published in BWA, KNP, tune Blue bayou. The song ends:

I'm goin’ back some day, gonna stay in KNP.Where the hills are fine, and the place is mine at KNP.With those wondrous views and time to lose, if I could only see,The mountains wide, as I do stride, how happy I'd be.

I’d never be blue, my dreams come true.In K-N-P.

I want to go back to a green national park, no bushfires, clear water. Sadly, this may not happen for a while.

From Jagungal looking south

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