Lake Pedder

From one amazing lake to another. The drive into Lake Pedder was spectacular, through mountain ranges and through forest that is still being fought over right now (like the big protest camp at Florentine Valley, and the Styx Valley where some big old trees were recently saved).

And then Lake Pedder - which was in an absolutely, amazingly beautiful part of Tasmania, surrounded by mountain ranges in every direction. Felt a little bit treachorous in loving Lake Pedder quite so much, given it is (in)famous for being the Tasmanian environmental movements’ big loss in the 1970s. And when we saw on a map the extent of the original Lake Pedder, it became clear just how much of the land was lost in the dam flooding.

But we got the tinnie into the lake anyway, and spent an afternoon exploring and trying yet again to catch a trout! Apart from a slightly strange couple of guys in a foot operated kayak, we had the lake to ourselves, and it was an eerie heavily clouded day that was reflecting in the calm lake – it was quite special.

Late that afternoon we decided to drive another 70+km to Strathgordon, so that Nic could ring (dearest brother) Jezza on his birthday, and we could check out the Gordon Dam. Strathgordon is a utilitarian Hydro town, and the only place to eat was basically the workers mess, where we had a really really ordinary Valentine’s Day meal!

We got to the infamous Gordon Dam with the very last snippet of light, just as the lights came on the dam wall, which all combined to make it a kind of freaky experience, what with vertigo looking down the 140m dam wall. No one else was around in the twilight, and looking at the stains from obvious leaks we just kept thinking – ‘what if the dam’s useful life is about to end NOW while we are standing right on top of it?!?!?!?’