Jindabyne (Feb 8)
We left Bright about 10:00 with Tony in the lead and drove a twisty mountain road
over a pass to the next valley. After an hour in the valley we stopped for lunch, said our farewells and parted company at about 12:30. It was a sad parting. We have had so much fun together over the last several days. We can’t say enough about how much we have enjoyed our stay here. Barb and Tony are generous and gracious hosts and excellent company. We share similar points of view on so many things and were able to solve most of the world’s problems. I highly recommend the Jones Hotel to anyone visiting Melbourne. Barb sends her love to everyone back home. She misses you all, even though Cheryl will have a black mark until she writes or emails and sends some pictures. (Gail got off the hook with the wedding pics and DVD.)
We drove for another hour in similar terrain to the last couple of days before turning into the mountains. From then until half an hour before we checked into our hotel at 5:30, we were on a winding mountain road so narrow that they didn’t bother to paint a centerline for 80 km. For that stretch, top speed was 80 kmph, there was a curve slower than 60 kmph every hundred metres or so, and there were several hairpins posted at 15 kmph. Tony said it was one of his favourite roads, and you know what that means – it was one of Celeste’s least favourite. We took it easy on the twistiest parts and encountered less than a dozen cars, so it was quite tolerable and the scenery was beautiful.
We stopped for half an hour to tour a power station, one of several in a network of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, and power stations that make up the Snowy Mountains Scheme that supplies 11% of Australia’s power and regulates the flow of water for millions of acres of irrigation.
We also stopped for half an hour at Thredbo, one of the country’s main ski resorts. In summer, they run the chair lift to the top of their ski mountain on the edge of a plateau. One of the peaks in the plateau is Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko. We were thinking of riding the lift and hiking to a view point, but we got there just as they were shutting down for the day at 4:30. We might have been able to get to the top, but would have had to hike all the way back down. Doable, but not an attractive proposition. We might go back tomorrow.
After the Jones Hotel, we are pretty spoiled, but there wasn’t much letdown at our hotel tonight. It is an apartment with a full size kitchen including stove, full size fridge, and dishwasher. (They usually have a bar fridge and sometimes a microwave.) There is a washer and a drier in the bathroom. (Not even coin operated!) And there is a large balcony that just screamed out for a bottle of wine with a simple supper. After that we went for a walk and returned to catch up on my vacation accounting and other computer housekeeping while Celeste did some laundry and watched a movie until she fell asleep.
By the way, Happy Birthday Laura! Not sure if we will have internet access on the 11th.
over a pass to the next valley. After an hour in the valley we stopped for lunch, said our farewells and parted company at about 12:30. It was a sad parting. We have had so much fun together over the last several days. We can’t say enough about how much we have enjoyed our stay here. Barb and Tony are generous and gracious hosts and excellent company. We share similar points of view on so many things and were able to solve most of the world’s problems. I highly recommend the Jones Hotel to anyone visiting Melbourne. Barb sends her love to everyone back home. She misses you all, even though Cheryl will have a black mark until she writes or emails and sends some pictures. (Gail got off the hook with the wedding pics and DVD.)
We drove for another hour in similar terrain to the last couple of days before turning into the mountains. From then until half an hour before we checked into our hotel at 5:30, we were on a winding mountain road so narrow that they didn’t bother to paint a centerline for 80 km. For that stretch, top speed was 80 kmph, there was a curve slower than 60 kmph every hundred metres or so, and there were several hairpins posted at 15 kmph. Tony said it was one of his favourite roads, and you know what that means – it was one of Celeste’s least favourite. We took it easy on the twistiest parts and encountered less than a dozen cars, so it was quite tolerable and the scenery was beautiful.
We stopped for half an hour to tour a power station, one of several in a network of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, and power stations that make up the Snowy Mountains Scheme that supplies 11% of Australia’s power and regulates the flow of water for millions of acres of irrigation.
We also stopped for half an hour at Thredbo, one of the country’s main ski resorts. In summer, they run the chair lift to the top of their ski mountain on the edge of a plateau. One of the peaks in the plateau is Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko. We were thinking of riding the lift and hiking to a view point, but we got there just as they were shutting down for the day at 4:30. We might have been able to get to the top, but would have had to hike all the way back down. Doable, but not an attractive proposition. We might go back tomorrow.
After the Jones Hotel, we are pretty spoiled, but there wasn’t much letdown at our hotel tonight. It is an apartment with a full size kitchen including stove, full size fridge, and dishwasher. (They usually have a bar fridge and sometimes a microwave.) There is a washer and a drier in the bathroom. (Not even coin operated!) And there is a large balcony that just screamed out for a bottle of wine with a simple supper. After that we went for a walk and returned to catch up on my vacation accounting and other computer housekeeping while Celeste did some laundry and watched a movie until she fell asleep.By the way, Happy Birthday Laura! Not sure if we will have internet access on the 11th.
posted by Celeste at
6:50 p.m.
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