Saturday, July 5, 2008

Week 5 SE Australia






Week 5 SE Australia

The highlight of this week was our visit to the Snowy Mountains. True to their name, we were hiking in snow on the trails near the summit. We even saw the Snowy Mountain brumbies (wild horses). In fact, one day a stallion blocked our trail and we wisely detoured around him. These mountains are home to Australia’s largest hydro electric project. Water from the east side of the mountain is collected in large reservoirs, piped through the mountains to a series of power stations on the west side and then discharged for irrigation and consumption. While Australia is in the 7th year of drought, this area is the most deficient, with some reservoirs down to 20 % of capacity.

After driving east from Adelaide, we turned north and started up the populous east coast. We toured Canberra, their capital city. Its layout is very similar to Washington DC. It even has its own territory and the museums are free. Clean, uncrowded, low crime rate; maybe it's not like DC after all.

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