Monday February 26th and Wednesday February 28th, 2017 - The Journey Was Hell, the Destination Divine!

In December 1969, I actually volunteered to go on a bushwalk with my father. (This was not something I had ever done before. All previous bushwalking journeys had not involved ANY enthusiasm on my part!) I was interested because the place he was going - Lake Pedder- was on the list of sites that was soon to be flooded to create hydro-electricity. As happens at such times, there was much controversy and environmental activism, so I decided I wanted to go and see it for myself.

Here I am looking over the original Lake Pedder in 1969, with a friend of my father's, David Wilson.

On this trip I wanted to go back and see what it looks like now. Nadine and I had left Bruny Island, resupplied ourselves in Hobart and headed north an hour or so to Mt. Field National Park. When I realized that Lake Pedder was within reach from there, I headed out on my own, relatively late in the afternoon. I only knew that I needed to go to Strathgordon, which was 93 km (58 miles) away. But it is 93 km through total wilderness! The road only exists for the hydro project, although now of course it's used by boaters and outdoors enthusiasts, too. 

You can see why - it is lovely.

Fortunately, the road was paved, so off I went. Nadine decided, sanely, that driving this distance to see a couple of old dams wasn't worth it. About 65 km down the road, I finally found a map that showed the new lakes that had been formed by this enormous hydro-electric scheme, and realized that Strathgordon was the site of the new Lake Pedder, but not the old. The old Lake Pedder was off the only other road in the area - Scott's Peak Dam Rd - that was 70 km (43 miles) of dirt road and it was 20km back the other way!

This was about where I turned around - strange to see the power lines in the midst of all that nothingness!

Now, it was getting toward evening, there was no cell reception and no-one knew where I was going. At least I did have one bottle of water! In spite of all the reasons to hold back, off I flew, alternately cursing myself, as it seemed as if I was rattling the car to pieces, sliding through the gravel periodically and also rejoicing that I might see what the old place looked like!

Bit by bit familiar sites revealed themselves - first Mt. Anne - an iconic mountain in my father's mind.

Then the buttongrass plains, which I remember walking through very well. Often wet, they could harbor snakes - one could either jump from the top of one to the other, or walk between. Either had their hazards!

My heart really started soaring when I got glimpses of water.......

............and spied those marvelous Western Arthur's off in the distance again - only this time we were to the north of this range.

Finally, I arrived at the end of the road - a lookout surrounded by the most remarkable beauty I have ever seen! This is Scott's Peak, that now forms an island.

It certainly didn't hurt that the sun was getting low in the sky and creating some wonderful reflections. 

The ultimate prize was to realize that I was now a mere 35km from Bathurst Harbor - the area that Nadine and I had flown in to earlier. To think that one could get to such a remote place by car was really thrilling to me.

Poor Nadine - I knew she would be really aggravated to have missed a chance to get this close to her beloved South-West Tassie! I also noted that the Port Davey Track had it's trail-head here!

This is the pass through the Arthur's that the Port Davey Track takes.

When I got back to our accommodation (thankfully!) that was the last straw for her - she was quite bereft that she had missed the experience! So of course, we had to come back on the Wednesday.

At least it was earlier in the day and sunnier. This it Mt. Anne again, with Mt. Edgar to the right, and the 'buttons' of the buttongrass in the foreground.

It was still as beautiful - 360 degrees of mountains!

We also went to the Port Davey Trail and  indulged ourselves by going down the old track for a km or so! 

Nadine led the way........

.....and we thought a selfie with Mt. Anne in the background would do the trick to finish things off!

It was a wonderful end to our time in the wilds!