Thredbo
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2010
1
40
96
Trip End
Oct 13, 2011
Thredbo Village, New South Wales, Australia
Sunday, February 6, 2011
This morning we woke up in Thredbo.
Our first stop today was Mount Kosciuszko which at 2228m is Australias highest mountain.
The mountain is part of the snowy mountain range and is named after a Polish guy who led an army to protect Poland from invasion by the Hungarians.
We learnt alot about the Snowy Mountains and the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Scheme which is one of Australias' greatest engineering achievements and is recognised around the world. It took over 25 years and 100,000 people including migrants from 30 countries to build it. Its main purpose is to supply electricity to south east Australia and is essentially a series of huge dams. 3 villages in the area had to be relocated including Jindabyne which is nearby to Thredbo. The old Jindabyne was flooded with water to make a dam, people dive down to the old village to check it out, a whole village submerged under water. A new Jindabyne was built up into the hills and is now a very popular ski resort in the winter and gets very busy with tourists.
It was a miserable cold, wet day today and by the time we got to the mountain it was lashing it down. The original plan in the itinery says that we get to climb to the summit, it was too dangerous to attempt that in these conditions but we all agreed it would be a shame not to get to the first base/station up the mountain so at least we could say we've kind of gone up the highest mountain in Australia. There was a chairlift upto the first station but the rain was coming down so heavy and it was so grey that no-one could bother to even lift their heads up to look around. We were all freezing cold and absolutely soaked, we took a couple of pictures and got the chairlift back down again!
Next we visited the Snowy Mountain visitor centre and learnt more about the area including the hydro electric scheme.
Back on the bus again and then a lunch stop at Bombala which is known as platypus country, the spot we had lunch had a platypus walk but we never saw one. Coaster told us it is very rare to spot one in the wild as they tend to be mostly nocturnal. I wont give up though, I WILL see one!
Back on the bus and we pass a sign telling us we have now left the state of New South Wales and are now in Victoria.
Our next stop was Cape Conran Coastal Park which was a pretty beach area with lots of rocks.
Further along the road we passed through an area which just 48 hours earlier had suffered a terrible forest fire, it was so sad to see miles and miles black and burnt trees, some still smoking, not to mention the wildlife which must have perished.
Our final stop of the day was at Boggy Creek Gorge. It was a short walk to a lovely picturesque lookout area of the mountains and a waterfall.
We soon arrived at Lakes Entrance where we were staying for the night. This was a horrible cramped hostel, there was 11 of us with only 1 toilet and 1 shower.
We dumped our stuff off and braved the windy, cold night to enjoy the sunset at Australias' longest beach - 90 mile beach.
