Junee Caves & Southwest National Park 11th -13th January

Junee Caves walk

Anne's Cake/pudding

We decided to head for Southwest National Park but stumbled on Junee Caves Conservation Area just out of Madena and decided to stop here near a beautiful stream with trout etc, hardly anyone about.  Did a night walk up to the glow worms and cave entrance. Rain set in so we decided to bunker down, do some cooking, reading and chill out for a bit.  Rob still manages to get a fire going and makes a little roof over his fireplace to keep the rain out - despite wet wood we still have a fire....

Heading South West

Moved on today, headed for Gordon Dam and Lake Pedder in South West National Park, but 20th century mining and large-scale hydro electric dams have left there mark and with bleak and barren country though the mountains are spectacular.  Gordon Dam is quite a big project, an "eggshell" type dam forming Lake Pedder, 24 times the size of the original Lake.

Gordon Dam

Dwarfed on all sides by a ghostly drowned landscape, you can only imagine the contrast that must once have been created by the broad pink beach  of the original Lake Pedder. Pedder was the subject of one of the most controversial failed conservation fights in history, the new lake Pedder flooded the very beautiful 'old' Lake Pedder.  The equivalent of flooding Wineglass Bay. The fight of concerned citizens led to the birth of the world's first Green Party, the United Tasmania Group (UTG). 

Lake Pedder or Dead Tree Lake??

Despite the beauty of the area and Gordon Dam's engineering feat, we found it very depressing looking over an area that holds 27 times more water than Sydney Harbour, full of flooded trees. So we decided to move on towards Lake St Clair/Cradle Mountain National park visiting a few short walks along the way.  A favourite was the Creepy Crawley a lovely section of cool temperate rainforest. The boarded track gently weaves its way around moss-covered trees and over giant logs.

Creepy Crawley walk

Traveled up to Hamilton, a historic village settled by Scottish farmers, you can still find the cottages and grand old farm houses once inhabited by the early farmers. Hamilton was developed as a transport hub and by the 1830s was operating a number of breweries and a roaring illegal spirits trade. A very pretty town with a great little camp spot.

The old gaol - Hamilton