Here be giants!

I have done more driving yesterday and today than walking but I've seen some beautiful countryside. Lake St Clair, the end of the Overland Track was busy with hikers completing the 5 day trek and day visitors. It was also incredibly expensive!  Coffee was $6.50 and a small frittata $15.0 and I had to compete with swarms of wasps (European?) in order to eat it! The VIC here is much older and more rustic than CM and full of memorabilia. There are a number of short walks including "Where waters meet" which I  explored. 

On the way back to Queenstown I stopped for a short loop walk on the Franklin River.

 Described as "almost wilderness" the loop meanders through typical rainforest trading  the sounds of traffic for bird song and the rush of water over rocks. Fantastic fungi stand out amongst the greens of moss and lichens. 

It rained in the night and it was very  cold. At the Hungry Wombat Cafe in Derwent Bridge, where I had breakfast, there was a welcoming wood fire blazing in the corner. 

Leaving the mountains behind the road descends to open farmlands before turning south to timber and hop country and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Lake Pedder lies at the end of the Gordon River Road.  Lakes Pedder and Gordon were formed in the late 1970s - controversial then and still so, they are truly remote and popular for fishing and water sports. There are people still advocating for Lake Pedder to be drained and rehabilitated, arguing that its importance in providing hydro electricity is lessened now.

Although only around 80 kilometres from Maydena and Mt Field Nationsl Park it takes well over an hour owing to the narrow and winding road lined with rainforest of myrtle, sassafrass and celery top pine, old forests and plantation timbers. Maydena was once the centre of the timber industry here.

The road ends at these cliffs.

Far below is the Gordon dam: an amazing engineering feat filling the narrow gorge of the river and forming Lake Gordon.

Home to ancient forests: this giant Huon pine was felled in 1975 and salvaged during the construction of the Lakes system.

It's age has been verified as 2200 years old and it's girth at 8 metres.

To put it into context - in the life time of this tree!

68 AD  Nero died

  Romans left Britain 411

         Mohammed was born 569

                Danes invade Britain 797

  Battle of Hastings 1066

             Magna Carta 1215

  Joan of Arc burned at the stake 1431

         Tasmania discovered 1642

      Fire of London 1666

            First Fleet arrives Botany Bay 1788

 First  Settlement in Van Diemen's Land1803

       VDL becomes Tasmania 1856

             .      TREE FELLED 1975

Here indeed be giants!

Bitumen Bones - a sculpture representing the unforgiving landscape,  framed by the wings of a Forest Raven (Corvus tasmanicus) scavening roadkill remnants on the bitumen.

A long drive along a long road but worth the effort!