Day 9 – Sunday, 5th October  2003

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Glenorchy Showground Markets are like a giant garage sale but not many craft stalls. Darani bought a framed painting of a chicken, which made her happy. Everyone else bought bits and pieces. 

Pointed the car west and headed to Gordon Dam, 165klm away, stopping at New Norfolk for morning tea in the park. On the way passed the Norske-Skog newsprint mill, a huge factory, which supplies some of News Limited paper. 

We then stopped at The Oast House with a lovely rustic garden, established about 150yrs ago as the drying kilns for the locally grown hops. Hops give beer its bitter taste and act as a preservative. These days The Oast House is a museum, café and craft shop. Hop growing is still the main industry in the area with hundreds of acres under cultivation. 

Leaving New Norfolk started our long drive to Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder to see the Gordon Dam. [Pamphlet] What a drive! We drove for what seemed like hours not seeing another car. Up and down steep twisty roads through world heritage national parks, some areas heavily forested but some areas would not be out of place in a desert. 

Finally we saw the water of lake Pedder a huge man made lake and not long after, we pulled up to the Gordon Dam at the end of the road. The water level was down 19m but last month it was down 33m before the big wet Tasmania got. Sam and Lindsey walked down a very steep set of stairs from the lookout & visitor centre to walk on the dam. [Photo1, Photo2] The gorge downstream is stunning and it gives you an idea of the kind of area inundated when the dam was finished. [Info1, Info2] 

A late lunch was consumed at Ted’s Beach on the shores of Lake Pedder, a boat ramp and picnic area about 15klm back towards Hobart. Apparently the freshwater fishing is pretty good. On the way back we saw a very large example of a log near Maydena. Also there was a lovely view of a snow-capped Mt. Field to the North. Further along we think near Westerway we saw a nice scene of crystal clear water flowing under a rail bridge.