Kosciuszko Kapers

Just when we thought we couldn't shovel too much into one day we decided to go out onto Lake Jindabyne in Mark's boat for a quick buzz around the place.  All well and good but this was BEFORE breakfast.  Holy cow.  We all piled into the boat for the short drive down to the boat ramp and stayed in it while Mark launched it off the trailer.  How lazy is that? We took a pleasant ride up the Snowy River to check out one of the pumping stations of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.  We ate some of the delicious fruit slice left over from last night before heading up the Thredbo River for a look-see.

Fletcher looking as relaxed as ever, brew in hand.

 Jack and Jarrah took the helm for part of the way, doing a fantastic job, until something came over Jack and he decided to do a rather radical and unexpected U-turn that threw us all over the place.  I thought I was in one of those shot-over jet-boats for a second or two!

 

 

Jack has the wind in his hair as Jarrah steers the boat with his eyes closed....

and I was sh**ting broken glass.

 

 To prove that we are actually very lazy, we stayed in the boat while Mark recovered it onto the trailer and took us back to his place!  Not one chance of getting wet the entire time.  Now that's my kind of boating!

 

After a quick brekky, we made our way to Thredbo Village through the scenic valleys and mountains along the steep and windy Alpine Way.  This road was made by the Snowy River Trust in the fifties when they were building the hydro-electric system and remains the only thoroughfare through the Snowy Mountains from East to West.

 

With the ski season over all the chair lifts at Thredbo have now shut down except one - The Kosciuszko Express.  The boys had a great thrill taking the ride up to the top of the mountain.  The views were spectacular.  Surprisingly, it was quite warm and we didn't really need all the cold weather gear we had on, but better to be safe than sorry I reckon. 

 At the bottom.

 

 Half way up.!

 

Once at the top of the chair lift we had a two kilometre trek up the hill to the Mt Kosciuszko lookout.  There was plenty of scope for more snowball fights, a few ending in tears after direct head-shots.  But life is tough on the road and in the end, the boys gave as good as they got. 

Jarrah, lying in wait.

 

It was fun and while Fletchy didn't make the distance and sat in the back-pack for part of the journey the reward was the spectacular views of the mountain range. 

 

At the top.
Mount Kosciuszko (2238m)

 

Our initial intention was to trek the additional 6.5km to Mt Kosciuszko but it became unachievable given our late start to the day and the fact that the trail was still heavily covered in snow.  Fletch wouldn't have stood a chance and I wasn't going to carry him all that way!  But we did see a few RAAF F18 Super Hornets dogfighting through the valleys, which fully impressed the boys, and myself.

 

The boys wanted to try a better method of getting up the hill.

 

But in the end it was the Mk1 boot method that we used.

 

Unfortunately, Fletcher lost his legs so we had to carry him.

 

After a bite to eat it was time to trek on back to the chair lift and back down to the Thredbo Village for some awesome tobogganing!  We found a nice spot where it wasn't too steep for the boys and spent what seemed like forever racing and chasing each other up and down the hill.  It was terrific fun and the boys all thought it was epic!  Whatever that means....   Anyway, by this time it was almost starting to get dark so we had to make tracks.  It's daylight saving here in NSW so it is usually later than you think when the sun starts to drop.

 

Andrea in full flight.

 

Fletcher loved it!

 

We checked out the Thredbo Landslide Memorial before heading out to Dead Horse Gap to see if we could find any stray brumbies known to be in the area, but to no avail.  Not even dead ones. So, we headed off on the long journey back to Jindabyne but not before Jarrah spotted a bunch of deer frolicking on the side of the road.  Well spotted Jarrah! 

 

 

Bummer of an aiming mark on these fellas.

 

Andrea cooked up a beaut dinner of spaghetti carbonara and over a few glasses of red we swapped stories with Mark and played Uno.  It was a fun relaxing way to finish off another 'epic' day on the Johnston's Tour Aus!

 

Author's Note

Thredbo is a place of special significance to me.  In 1997, fresh after completing a Structural Collapse Rescue course in the USA and deploying to North Carolina to assist after the devastating Hurricane Fran, I deployed to Thredbo as an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) technician.  I spent seven days as part of the NSW USAR Task Force to search for and rescue the 19 victims of the landslide that destroyed the Carrinya and Bimbadeen Ski Lodges.

 

I was a member of the team that detected the sole survivor of the landslide, Stuart Diver.  We bored through three slabs of concrete which were sandwiched together like a stack of pancakes and tunnelled along in-between them, to get to Stuart.  This was done primarily by lying on our stomachs and digging through dirt with a small hand shovel and cutting our way through the crushed contents of household furniture and rubble.

 

It was without a doubt the most dangerous task I have ever attempted and I can honestly say that I was scared beyond all sensibility the entire time I was sub-surface.  But it was also the most satisfying. 

 

I spent the majority of my time, however, searching for and recovering the bodies of nine of the remaining 18 victims.  None of these recoveries were any different to that of Stuart's because  the element of danger was no less present.  We afforded each of them the utmost dignity.  It is a privilege every time I come back to Thredbo to be able to pay my respects. 

 

Rest in Peace

 

Sally, John, Barry, Michael, Anthony, Dianne, Aino, David, Steven, Colin, Wendy, Mary, Oskar, Mariam, Stephen, Dianne, Andrew and Werner.