DAY 13 - MT FIELD / GORDON DAM
We wake to a nice morning today, our plan for the day is to do a 4wd track on the way to The Gordon Dam, then drive out to the dam itself and then back to camp from there. It's approximately a 100 kilometre drive from camp out to the Gordon Dam, and then you need to come all the way back again on the same road you went there on, so we'll be doing a bit over 200 klms driving today by the time you add in the detour of the 4wd track also. Before we can leave camp though, we need to visit the Rangers Station and get a key that unlocks the gate on the 4wd track we want to drive. The track is called The Saw Back Track, it's definately 4wd only and takes you through to the old mining town of Adamsfield, oh and by the way...you need to pay a $300 refundable deposit to get a key that unlocks the gate to gain access the track. The track is one way only and they limit the number of vehicles that can drive it at anyone time.
Brekky had and vehicles stocked for the days outing, we head over to the Rangers Station to get the key. There's a bit of paperwork to fill in before we get the key, they'll want your name and vehicle details and i think they might have wanted to know who were in the vehicles also. Jeff hands over his credit card and pays the refundable deposit, they actually only process the transaction if you don't return the key we get told as they take down the cards details. The lady taking our details and giving us the key isn't very helpfull on current track conditions, she's never been on the track before and calls for another Ranger to come and speak to us to help us out better. We get the run down on the track and it doesn't sound to bad from how the Ranger speaks of it, we mention we both are driving Landcruisers and running atleast 2 inches of lift (my vehicle has a 3" lift), and the Ranger says we'll be fine then. Aswell as the lift, both vehicles are runing front and back lockers aswell as a winch on the front bar, it's just a shame my winch doesn't actually work at the moment...you might recall i mentioned that back at the start...lol.
We get the key we need and head off towards The Gordon Dam on the Gordon River Rd. The track we plan to drive is about 32 klms past the small town of Maydena, it's the last place to get food and fuel until you return back here again, so keep that in mind. The drive starts off with the surrounding bushland blocking pretty much any views as you drive along the road, occasionally the trees disappear though, and you are then greeted with some pretty nice views of the surrounding mountain ranges.
THE START OF THE DRIVE TOWARDS GORDON DAM
OCCASIONALLY YOU'LL GET A CLEARING SHOWING SOME OF THE NICE VIEWS THE AREA HAS ON OFFER
It's an uneventful run to the start of the Saw Back Track, we stop a couple of times along the way to get pics, and Jeff and Sara manage to see an echidna at one of the spots they pull over at. At about the 32klm mark past Maydena, we turn right off the main road onto a small track which is the start of the Saw Back Track, you'll immediately see the locked gate infront of you, so when you pull up here it's the perfect time to air down and lock it in 4wd. We unlock the gate and proceed through it, immediately you'll notice there's not a lot of width to the track, so prepare yourself for some bush pin striping action.
SAW BACK TRACK
The start of the track is pretty easy going for the first kilometre, though as mentioned already the trees lining the track give the paint work on your vehicle a real hammering. If you're the type of person that hates scratches on their vehicle, then don't even consider driving this track. After about a kilometre the track starts to become a bit more muddy and you lose the hard base you've been driving on, there's some bigger holes starting to appear and the track starts to become a proper 4wd track. A few kilometres into the track and Jeff who is leading the way has become stuck, he's bottomed out in the centre of the track and going nowhere fast, his front and back lockers not helping at all. It's time to run the winch out and drag him up the hill, it doesn't look like a hard hill to drive actually but he's hung up and stuck fast. We run the cable out and find a suitable tree at the top of the small hill that Jeff is stuck on, we slowly drag the vehicle to the top and then it's my turn. Engaging both front and back lockers i tell the misses we should be right here, Jeffs spare tyre under his vehicle has been dragging on the high spots of the centre of the track in various places along the way, and this is what looks like he was hung up on a minute ago. A little bit of right foot....but not to much, and we have a crack at the hill....nup, no luck. I back out and give it another try with a touch more right foot this time....nope, no luck again. I tell Jeff i'll give it one more go, and if no luck this time we'll snatch it up the hill with his vehicle. I give it a 3rd attempt but still don't make it to the top this time either, i'm getting hung up on the diff centres here and need to be running atleast 35" tyres i reckon to get the clearance i need on the centre of the track. There is no choice of line to take here either, it's 2 wheel tracks with embankments on either side of you, so you either have the clearance or you don't, it's that simple. If i really wanted to flog the guts out of my vehicle i reckon i may have made it up this incline bouncing over the holes, but we are thousands of kilometres from home at the moment and still have another 4 weeks of holidays infront of us, so i didn't want to risk breaking something just to conquor a small muddy hill. I grab my snatch strap out and we hook it up to Jeffs vehicle, it's not long and i'm then over the last little rise i was hung up on. We are only at the start of the track and already wondering what the rest of it will be like from here on in, the Ranger back at the station said it should be pretty easy going for vehicles like ours, but we are starting to wonder when was the last time he actually drove this track to know the current condition of it. The track isn't hard 4wding by any means, it's just that the wheel ruts are so deep, we really need to be running bigger tyres to get the diff clearance we require.
We push on a touch further and before long Jeff is bogged once again, like last time he's hung up in the centre of the track, and it's time to break the winch out once again. We winch it free and now it's my turn to have a try, but just like the last spot i also get hung up in the centre of the track also, so we need to snatch it free once again. With both vehicles eventually at the top of the rise, we make the call to turn back and forget about doing the rest of this track. We have no idea what lies infront of us, and at the rate we are currently making headway at, it'll likely be night time by the time we reach the other end of this track. To be honset... if we were back at home driving this with a few of our mates in the 4wd club this would be a pretty fun track to drive, but here we are with our wives and kids onboard on holidays, and we're really not in the mood for trudging through the mud like we currently are and winching vehicles up slippery hills. We find a suitable spot to do a 10 point turn in (trust me there ain't many spots to turn around in here) and start heading back the wrong way on a one way track, we just hope nobody comes the other way as there just isn't anywhere to pass each other on this track in most places. Thankfully we get back to the gate without anyone coming the other way, the hills we got stuck on going up we slide down over going the opposite way, we unlock the gate once again and exit the track. If you have a vehicle running 35" tyres i reckon you'll go much better then we did on this track, if your running 33" tyres as we are, then you'll need plenty of right foot and a zero care factor about how hard you hit the humps and bumps to bounce through the holes...something we just weren't going to do ourselves.
TRACK STARTS OUT FINE, A TOUCH WET BUT A HARD BASE
TRACK IS OVERGROWN IN PLACES (not the worst of it pictured), SO YOU'LL GET SOME BUSH PIN STRIPING ALONG THE WAY
YOU CAN SEE JEFF HAS BEEN BOTTOMING OUT IN THE CENTRE OF THE TRACK AS HE GOES
NO PICS OF THE RECOVERIES SORRY TO SAY, WE WERE A BIT BUSY TRYING NOT TO SLIP OVER IN THE MUD...LOL
We lock the gate behind us as we leave and air our tyres back up again, we turn right back onto the Gordon River Rd and head towards Strathgordon. As you drive along the road it starts to open up more, the views along the way of the surrounding mountain ranges are getting pretty spectacular, so we stop to take a few more pics.
THE SENTINEL RANGE
Just before we reach Strathgordon we turn left to go check out a lookout that overlooks Lake Pedder, we plan to have lunch here but as we are taking a few pictures of the view, it starts to shower with rain. The view out over the lake below and of the mountain ranges in the distance is pretty spectacular, make sure you stop here to check it out for yourself. Lake Pedder is apparently Australia's largest freshwater lake and water catchment system, water from here can flow into the Gordon Dam through the McPartlan's Pass canal and as such it becomes a part of the Gordon power station.
LAKE PEDDER, AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST FRESH WATER LAKE AND CATCHMENT SYSTEM...this pic does it no justice at all, that's maybe a quarter of what you'll see out infront of you.
With light rain falling we give lunch the miss for the moment and head off towards the Gordon Dam once again. Passing through Strathgordon you could be mistaken looking at a map that it's a town where fuel and the like would be available, but this doesn't appear to be the case, it's just about a ghost town. Orginally built by Hydro Tasmania as a construction township for the workers damming Lake Pedder and Lake Gordon, Strathgordon nowadays is not much more then a popular spot for fisherman and bush walkers choosing to stay in the chalet or self-contained units that are to be found here. We pass straight through the township without stopping and drive the last 12 klms to the Gordon Dam. As we reach the hydro power plant that is located at the dam here, we notice an aweful lot of dead trees about the place. Iit takes a while for us to realise what has happened here, but we think the water level must be much lower then it normally would be at the moment, and what we are seeing is the trees that would normally be under water.
We pull up at the end of the road where it over looks the dam wall and hop out of our vehicles. The rain has stopped now so we take the opportunity to make a quick lunch, before then walking down a bucket load of stairs to walk along the top of the dam wall itself. The dam wall is 140 mtrs high and apparently holds back thirty times the amount of water of Sydney Harbour. Adrenalin junkies can even abseil down the dam wall for a cost of $210 (you need to book in a tour prior to do this, it's not a turn up and do thing, there's nobody out here most of the time), it's apparently the world's highest commercial abseil, so something to tick off your bucket list maybe. We walk the wall and take a few pics before starting the climb back up to the vehicles. As i go to climb the stairs back to our vehicle i notice another old concrete set of stairs coming down the rock wall to our left, and i wonder what used to be there once upon a time (a lookout maybe?). The drop from the last step there now is a substantial one, i doubt these concrete stairs are accessible by the public nowadays?
GORDON DAM
A GOOD TESTER FOR THE KNEES
PLENTY OF DEAD TREES ABOUT THE PLACE
OLD CONCRETE STAIRS
WATCH THAT LAST STEP, IT A DOOZEY AND DROPS OVER THIS
Back at the vehicles we start our drive back towards camp, we make a quick stop to check out the power station and i am surprised to read that 183 mtrs below the switch yard is where 13% of Tasmania's hydro electricity is being produced. Looking at the power station infront of us, it's hard to believe there's so much more buillt that far underground that we aren't seeing.
GORDON DAM HYDRO STATION
With the last of the afternoon fast getting away from us we head back towards camp, we stop off a few more times along the way to grab a few more pics and end up back at camp later then originally planned. We have some dinner and a few drinks, before heading off to bed for the night after a long days driving.
STOPPING FOR PICS ON THE WAY BACK TO CAMP
THE COLOURS OF THE PLANTS IN THIS AREA WITH THE MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND ARE QUITE PRETTY TO LOOK AT