Saturday...7 March 2015

Couple of days ago Himself and his cousin did a road trip which took in Mt Kosciuszko and the Snowy Hydro Scheme.
I was invited but knowing that it was yet another winding mountain road I decided to stay in camp and read a book. Most less stress all round. I loved my down time and the boys enjoyed not having the women squealing and telling them how to drive on the mountain roads!

They left Bega and went up and over Brown Mountain to Cooma then on to Jindabyne which is where the Snowy River starts. Damming of the Snowy River at Jindabyne was the most controversial part of the Snowy Scheme.

Next stop was Thredbo. They were going to take the chairlift up but it was minus 1 at the top of the chairlift and there was still a 9 km return walk to get to the summit. A worker at the visitor centre said the wind at the top was officially gale force with a severe chill factor so they settled for  looking at it from the various lookouts.

On the way to Khancoban they stopped off to look at the Murray 1 Power Station. This power station is fed water through massive pipes which poke out of the side of the mountain. The pipes are connected to tunnels which bring the water from Lake Eucumbene.

After that it was on to Khancoban. Khancoban Dam is fed water from Murray power station 2 which gets it's water  via tunnels and  pipes from Murray power station 1. The head water of the Murray river is at Khancoban.

Next stop was Cabramurra which at 1488 metres above sea level is officially the highest town in Australia. During the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme it was a town but is now strictly accommodation for the  Snowy Hydro workers,Main Roads and Kosciuszko National Park  people.

Leaving Cabramurra they went over Mount Selwyn to Kiandra and then onto Adaminaby. This town was completely uplifted and relocated from its original site because Lake Eucumbene would have flooded it once construction was completed and it filled with water. It is now trout fishing territory!

Talking of water they visited almost every dam and lake in the Snowy Hydro Scheme. They also saw some of the high country cattlemen's huts which are still in use but mainly for hikers.

They saw a very large cross section of Australia's native wildlife including snakes, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, echindnas and just to round out the day they also saw two foxes and a lot of rabbits.
Then it was back down to Cooma and back over Brown Mountain in the dark and on to Bega. They left at 7.30 am and got back just on 8.00 pm. Long day but two very happy lads having a beer at the end.