Today we took a drive to Lake Pedder and the Gordon River Dam. Lake Pedder (actually the little hydro town of Strathgordon is 86 ks from here (Mt Field NP) through some of the most stunning scenery we have seen in Tasmania. Parts of it are declared a world heritage wilderness, parts are state forests and therefore logged, and some are state reserves (not sure what they are!). Strathgordon had 2000 people living there at the height of the dam building. Now it has a handful of people who operate the hydro power station and a couple of touritsty things in town.
All the way, we travelled with ranges on either side of us-big granite mountains everwhere. We tried to take photos, but our camera just can't do it justice (and if I had a better camera, it would be wasted on me). It was quite misty on the way out, but the cloud burned away and it was a beautiful day after lunch.
Lake Pedder is 40km long and drowned the original Lake Pedder (causing quite a lot of controversy 40 years ago). Gordon River Dam wall is the largest of it's type in Australia at 140 metres and was amazing to see, although it was all to high for me. I'd never be able to do some of the maintenance work they are expected to do in some
of the places we saw.
Lake Pedder
Gordon River Dam
We drove 30ks down a dirt road to see the smaller Serpentine and the Scott's Peak Dams both also on Lake Pedder. It had been suggested to Russ by the ranger at the local info desk and was wonderful We drove through a couple of valleys with mountains all around us and at the Red Knoll Lookout, the mountains circled us from 4 to 40ks away.
The Road to Red Knoll
Lake Pedder from Red Knoll Lookout
On the way to Lake Pedder and home, we saw a group of logging protesters living in the forest trying to save the Florentine region from logging. It's a difficult thing when so many in Tassie rely on the logging industry, but the area is so very beautiful and worth saving.
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