Friday, March 16, 2007
A few cold nights
Note: still having problems uploading some pictures, will try again later.
BTW, we have a new mobile phone which is supposed to work in the CDMA regions (mostly used by farmers, has better coverage) and in the USA as well....but not in the desert, I suppose.
We thought that we picked the seasons right for the trip, going anti-clockwise. But we have had a few cold nights (socks, track suits, beanie and hot water bottle) near Cabramurra, the highest village in Oz at 1488 m. The town was created during the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, which has a multitude of dams and hydro power stations. The construction took more than 25 years and saw around 100,000 people employed, most of them very new immigrants, who could often not speak English. Italians, Yugoslavs, Polish, English, Irish, Scottish, they were all there, a few with their families and they did all the hard work in atrocious conditions. 125 died on the job. It was also the introduction of the Toyota Landcruiser to Australia at the initiative of Thiess, who then became the first Toyota Dealer later on. The Landcruisers turned out to be much more reliable than the Landrovers and American trucks they used first.
Hydro is also the main source of energy in Tasmania, but the recent (couple of years now) lack of rain has caused Tasmania to import power (electricity) from the main land for the first time and Victoria and NSW are trading power as the need arises. We wonder about climate change and the wisdom to invest so much into hydro power while sun energy appears to become more appropriate.
BTW, we have a new mobile phone which is supposed to work in the CDMA regions (mostly used by farmers, has better coverage) and in the USA as well....but not in the desert, I suppose.
We thought that we picked the seasons right for the trip, going anti-clockwise. But we have had a few cold nights (socks, track suits, beanie and hot water bottle) near Cabramurra, the highest village in Oz at 1488 m. The town was created during the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, which has a multitude of dams and hydro power stations. The construction took more than 25 years and saw around 100,000 people employed, most of them very new immigrants, who could often not speak English. Italians, Yugoslavs, Polish, English, Irish, Scottish, they were all there, a few with their families and they did all the hard work in atrocious conditions. 125 died on the job. It was also the introduction of the Toyota Landcruiser to Australia at the initiative of Thiess, who then became the first Toyota Dealer later on. The Landcruisers turned out to be much more reliable than the Landrovers and American trucks they used first.
Hydro is also the main source of energy in Tasmania, but the recent (couple of years now) lack of rain has caused Tasmania to import power (electricity) from the main land for the first time and Victoria and NSW are trading power as the need arises. We wonder about climate change and the wisdom to invest so much into hydro power while sun energy appears to become more appropriate.
