Yippee, your Koscioszko adventure begins today! You’ll need to arrive at Wares Yards campground between 4 and 5pm so that you can meet your guides and crew, settle into your spacious safari tent, have a safety briefing, and enjoy some drinks and nibbles before nightfall. After the first of many mouthwatering dinners and desserts around the fire, sleep beckons.

Waking up to the sounds of birdsong and padding hooves, you’ll unzip your tent to find billy tea and coffee brewing by the fire and unhurried breakfast preparations underway. At 8am, the feast begins: cooked delights such as bacon and eggs, English muffins or omelettes alongside cereals, fresh bread and fruit. When everyone is fed, dressed, and has prepared their saddlebag lunch (either a wrap or a sandwich, plus tasty snacks!) you’ll get to know your trusty steed on the ground before mounting up for a brief ridden skill assessment in the safety of the campgrounds. Once everyone is comfortable, the ride begins in earnest. Travelling along Gavels Ridge, Brad, the lead guide, will point out the day’s route, which takes in Gavels Hut (your lunch spot – a weathered 1930s grazier’s hut), Nungar Plain (a vast alpine grassland where you’ll have chances to trot and canter) and ‘eagle’s nest’, a secluded area where you may even see your first brumbies!

After four to five hours in the saddle, the campsite will appear through the trees, smoke rising, wine and antipasto ready and waiting. If you like, you can wander down to the creek to spot kangaroos and wallabies, or if you’re really game, take a cold plunge in the icy water! Another scrumptious dinner will be whipped up tonight, to be savoured alongside stories from the bush, flaming red coals, and great company.

Settling into the morning routine, you’ll wake up, defrost with a hot drink and a cooked breakfast, prepare your lunch and get ready to ride. The day’s route takes you over Blackfellows Ridge, a windswept hilltop with views over both Nungar Plain (where you rode yesterday) and Boggy Plain (which you’ll explore in the coming days).

Continuing the ascent, your agile horse will carry you up a natural staircase to a mountaintop overlooking the massive Tantangara Dam and Snowy Hydro Scheme. This vantage point gives you an unparalelled sense of the scope of these immense operations. Lunch and billy tea will be served back down on the plains at Witzes Hut. Kosciuszko’s tracks and huts are packed with history, and your guides know every story there is to tell. You’ll no doubt hear quite a few while munching sandwiches on this holiday! In the afternoon, you’ll ride back to camp along Nungar Creek.

Heading back to Nungar Plain, you’ll take an entirely different track – Schofields Trail, to be precise – through forests of snow gum and mountain ash, over the creek and across the plain to Schofields Hut, your lunch stop. Once everyone is fed and rested, you’ll re-mount and ride further over the plain to reach a lookout, where you might spot Brumbies grazing in the distance.

Back at camp in the late afternoon, if you’re keen to keep exploring, your guides can take you for a drive to see more historical or modern-day points of interest.

Today is a real trek; it will leave you with a great sense of accomplishment at the journey’s end. Forested slopes wind up, down and around before abruptly ending at the edge of Boggy Plain. Here the horses’ surefootedness and your guides’ local knowledge comes to the fore: this notorious plain is an unsolvable riddle to all but a handful of people (and the Brumbies who call it home). The plains are also interspersed with dramatic, boulder-strewn hills reminiscent of the Scottish moors, with creeks carving wriggling paths between the slopes.

On the other side of Boggy Plain, you’ll ride into a beautiful, tall-sided valley, stopping for lunch and billy tea at one of the many sheltered, scenic spots en route. Travelling back towards camp over the hills, you’ll be dwarfed by tall, skinny eucalypts, emerging briefly at the opposite edge of Boggy Plain before navigating more challenging, forested slopes.

The icing on the cake, today’s ride begins with a gradual climb to the summit of Tantangara Mountain. Having seen this peak at many points throughout the week, the satisfaction of finally surveying the vast wilderness of Kosciuszko National Park from Tantangara – 1700 metres above sea level – will be palpable. On a clear day, the view spans across the Monaro Plains, Kiandra Goldfields, the blue expanse of Lake Eucumbene, and Mount Kosciuszko itself.

Heading down the mountain towards the aptly named Wild Horse Plain, you’ll dismount for one last saddlebag-packed lunch on the grassy banks of Chance Creek. Finally, you’ll ride home along Alpine Creek Fire Trail, with chances to trot and canter on the way.

After one last filling breakfast, you’ll say goodbye to your wonderful horses, guides, crew, and newfound Globetrotting friends. On the drive home, you might like to visit local attractions such as Yarrangobilly Caves and thermal pool, the Snowy Hydro Works and Museum, and Old Adaminaby.

This 4-night version of The Kosciuszko Ride is a highlight reel of the most beautiful trails and sites in northern Kosciuszko National Park. With arrival on the afternoon of day 1, over the next three riding days, you’ll traverse forested ranges, open ridges, rolling hills, alpine plains, steep mountainsides and pristine creeks, with packed lunches at historic huts en route. Back at camp, you’ll have the same comforts as on the 6-day itinerary. The whole itinerary is enriched with your guides’ deep knowledge of the flora, fauna, culture and history of Kosciuszko.

Departure is after breakfast on the final morning.

In the 2024-25 season, all rides will be based at Wares Yards campground. The campground is easily reached from the Snowy Mountains Highway and your hosts are lucky enough to have a generous area allocated to their horses, staff and guests.

At camp, you’ll find the extraordinarily well-stocked support vehicle alongside the sheltered camp kitchen and dining area. If there is rain, meals will be enjoyed in this undercover area, with a wood stove providing warmth. However, most of the time, the ambience of the campfire out in the open is impossible to resist!

Amenities are simple: an undercover drop dunny, hot camp shower and handwashing station. These are shared by the whole group.

As for accommodation, each guest is allocated their own roomy safari tent with a stretcher, stool, light and bedside table. In good weather, there’s also the option to bring your stretcher outside and sleep in a swag beneath the stars.

Transfers are NOT included in the ride price. We recommend either flying into Canberra and hiring a car, or self-driving if you live in Victoria or southern New South Wales. If you like, Globetrotting can help connect you with another guest booked on the same departure, so that you can share the drive.

On day 1, please aim to arrive at Wares Yards campground between 4 and 5pm. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Canberra.

The ride will finish after breakfast on the final day, after which you’re free to depart. Should you wish to catch a flight home today, please ensure it departs no earlier than 2pm.