Well we have climbed some of the way up Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia.  But only as far as the Lookout. It was another 4 kms to the summit and we decided that was a bit far!  We walked 2 kms from the chairlift up to the lookout.  It was a perfect day and we were so pleased we decided to go to Thredbo on Wednesday. We even had our packed lunch up on the mountain!  The gals were the keenest for this to happen, so we carried the backpacks!  Then we went to Murray 1 Power Station on Thursday and you will realise why we were glad we did our touring in this order, when you read more of the blog.  The opening to the ski season at Thredbo is the long weekend in June and we were told for a few months it becomes a very busy town!   There were big carparks everywhere, so we could well imagine.  There is still some remains of buildings that collapsed in the landslide of 1997.  There is a brick wall with a memorial plaque on it at the site.  A strange feeling came over me as I walked past the red door of the Medical Centre.   Didn't we constantly see that door during the media coverage of the tragedy?  Especially after Stuart Diver was rescued from the rubble.On 'April Fools Day' we travelled from Canberra to Jindabyne, the town on the edge of Lake Jindabyne.  It was a very picturesque drive down through the valley to Cooma.  We called into the 'Snowy Hydro Renewable Energy Discovery Centre' at Cooma and the display gave us a further understanding of the magnificent project that took 25 years to complete. Lunch was on the lawn outside the centre.We had travelled to Cooma via the Monaro Highway.  I was a bit taken with the name of this highway as the first car that Peter bought was a Holden Monaro.  We started our married life with that car!  I might have to see if there is a photo in the achives on this laptop!  After leaving Cooma we travelled on the Snowy Mountains Highway for a bit and then to Jindabyne on Alpine Way.  We were well and truly in 'Snowy' country now!.  Jindabyne is about 60kms from Cooma and what a view it was when we came over the hill and saw the lake.   Lake Jindabyne is the lowest lake in the Snowy Mountains scheme and recently there was an $80 million upgrade to the weir.   This upgrade will enable the company to more efficiently pump water up to the largest and higher lake, Lake Eucumbene.  It is from Lake Eucumbene that the water gravity feeds through the longest tunnel in the mountains.  When we did the tour of Murray 1 Station yesterday the guide told us that two companies were given the contract to dig the tunnel.  It was completed in two years and there was a competition between the two companies as to who would dig the furtherest!  They each started on opposites sides of the mountain.  When they met there was only 1 1/2 inches difference between the distance the two companies had dug.  Good story and who are we to doubt it!  Over the 25 years, 16 major dams, 7 hydro-electric power stations and 1 pumping station were built.  These were all linked together by 145 kms of tunnels and 80 kms of aqueducts driven through the mountains.  Even before the scheme was completed, it was officially recognised as one of the engineering wonders of the modern world.   The inserted photo gives further information on the scheme and why it was undertaken.  Today Snowy Hydro owns and operates the 'Snowy Mountain Hydro-electric Scheme' comprising a network of seven power stations, 31 generating units, 16 dams and 225 kilometres of tunnels and aqueducts dispersed over a catchment area of 5124 kilometres in the Kosciuszko National Park.When we had visited the National Museum in Canberra we read that today Snowy Hydro supplies less than 10% of Australia's power.  It was our understanding that the scheme was not used greatly these days and we could not understand why.  Surely we should be using more of this clean power!  Now we are far more informed!  It is all about Snowy Hydro's ability to draw on large scale generation at short notice. Using the flexibilty of hydro generation, Snowy Hydro provides peak power when it is needed most.  Snowy Hydro can provide power to consumers within 90 seconds.  So when everyone comes home from work and turns on air-conditioners or heaters and starts to cook dinner, that is when Snowy Hydro power is needed.   Or rather they do over here, where the population is so much greater.  The power can be sent to as far as Rockhampton in Queensland, Victoria, NSW, South Australia and can be used in Tasmania.  There are 10 generator units at Murray 1 Power Station and each unit could provide power to 95,000 average size homes.  That is 950,000 homes if all ten generators were working.  They would be being powered by the water coming down the hill in massive pipes.  The guide told us all the statistics about the pipes and that is certainly mens stuff!  What I do remember is that she told us "Should the pipes burst, there would be only 7 seconds before the water would take the power station out"!   The operation today is all about marketing within the company as a leading supplier of 'Electricity Price Risk Hedging Contracts'.  This is within the National Electricity Market (NEM) participants, who are seeking  protection to limit the price risk they face in the volatile NEM.  It is certainly 'BIG Business'!  Enough of that for this blog!  We all agreed our 60 km trip on a very windy Alpine Way to Murray Station No 1 was worth it, even if we had our heads in the clouds all day!!  Peter did very well getting us safely there on a rainy day, climbing up and down and around through the mountains.   We went down to the mountain a little to the small town of Khancoban and found a park to have our picnic lunch.   We checked out the Khancoban Dam before heading back.  Back again over that windy road through the mountains, with our heads in the clouds!!

We were to move on today to Eden, but it rained all night and we decided as we have another trip through the mountains, we would stay put for another day.  Cooma and Bega had 36 mls today, so our decision was a wise one!  I hope WA and the northern agricultural area are going to get their turn in receiving similar rains in the next month or so.  We have certainly experienced plenty of rain in our travels on this east coast.  Crops have been planted around Canberra and down to Cooma.  We are yet to find out what crops they are sowing.   No doubt it will become very cold in a couple of months and slow down growth.

We are looking forward to getting back to the ocean and the coastline tomorrow.  14 photos