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[Shane V]

Part 12 ? Lake King William North

We left Butlers Gorge with a vow to return. It was peaceful and serene and beautiful. The day was warm and only a few clouds in the blue sky. We drove back towards the highway, not talking much; I was just enjoying the scenery.

It was the first day of summer, a time when, in Australia, it is supposed to be warm. In Tassie it is different. You can get wintery conditions even on the hottest day, especially in the highlands. The weather was starting to turn cool and the cloud began to quickly accumulate as we drove further to the west.

I was enjoying the drive, sometimes slowing down to do a bit of sight seeing. (We really need to get a sticker that says ?Caution?photographer on board?vehicle is likely to stop at anytime!? or ?Caution?Driver sightseeing?) My favourite part of the drive was through Tungatinah. It is a windy section of highway through gorgeous forest.

Finally after about a 2 hour drive we arrived at Derwent Bridge. It is a little town on the edge of the World Heritage Area. The town was first settled in the 1880?s so prospectors and miners could easily get over the Derwent River and continue there journey west to the mine fields. Today there is accommodation and a few basic stores, petrol station and pub, making for easy access to the Lake St Clair National Park and surrounding areas.

We stopped in at the Petrol station to get some things we needed and to see if we could recharge our camera battery. They did it no problems. It was going to take a couple of hours for the battery to charge so we decided to go and find the campground and set up camp.

The turn off was difficult to find, we did make a mistake and found the local tip first; Very handy to know where that is. After getting back on the highway we drove slowly till we found the turn off. We drove down the dirt track with occasional breaks in the trees with views of the lake. We needed the bucket again. The surroundings were lush with eucalypts and other native trees and shrubs. Cute little wildflowers sprouted from the shrubs and out of the ground.

Then we turned a corner and drove into what looked like a graveyard, a tree graveyard. I couldn?t believe what I was seeing. All around was gravel and trees laying on their sides, decaying and dead. Obviously the lake level had dropped a lot with the lower amounts of rain we had been having. It was still a shock to see after what we had been travelling through; even the track to this point was relatively green and alive. We stopped and sat in total dismay.

Following the track we headed back into the lush trees once more for a few minutes, I was happy to be away from such destruction and desolation. Then the trees opened again?

My first thought was, ?How the f@#$ can people destroy such a beautiful place???? I really would have liked to have seen it before this had been done to it. I reckon it would have been really gorgeous. After the initial shock had worn off slightly we discovered a small area where we could pitch our tents and setup. I couldn?t help myself; every now and then I would look up and shake my head in disbelief. I couldn?t wait to get the camera back to get some photos.

With everything set up we had a quick look around and then headed back to the petrol station to get the battery. Battery in camera; we dropped into Lake St Clair National Park on the way back to the campsite. I was glad in a way to not be going straight back to the campsite.

The road down to the car park was lined with trees. On the left, beyond the trees, were Buttongrass plains and on the right the Derwent River. There were a couple of pull offs where you could see the river clearly. We decided to leave stopping there till on the way back. The clouds were really starting to thicken and we wanted to see the lake.

There were quite a few bushwalkers who had just finished the Overland Track there when we arrived, so we just had a quick look at the lake and left. We have plans to go back and really check out the lake at a later time. On the way out we did stop at one of the pull offs and got some shots of the Derwent River and some beautiful little wildflowers growing nearby. Then it was back to the campsite.

We slowly drove down the track back to where we first saw the devastation and stopped. Armed with the camera we got out of the car and surveyed the scene. I must have looked like one of the clowns you see at the show, my head was rotating right to left and back again and mouth agape. My initial shock of the destruction had not waned.

The clouds were now starting look heavy and it was getting darker by the minute. It seemed like an ominous sign to me. We moved on to the campsite and wandered around some more capturing as much of the desolate scenery as we could before the light faded too much.

Through breaks in the cloud sunlight shone an eerie sort of light over the scene in a way making it more beautiful. This was the first time that I thought of it as such. I sat back in my chair and watched the changing light and conditions. I could sense a change in the weather, it began to really chill down and there were a few spots of rain. Thankfully we had enough time to cook dinner before it really started to rain.

We climbed into the tent after stowing everything away and just listened to the rain softly patter on the tent. There is nothing like that sound. One of the things we bought with us was the scrabble board. We sat there playing for a little while then we heard thud, thud, and thud. It was no longer raining, it was snowing. We poked our heads out of the tent and I said, ?We?re being iced on again,? and we both laughed.

Throughout the night there were snow showers and I?m glad I didn?t have to go to the loo through the night because it really felt cold. We woke in the morning to more snow showers and rain. All the wood was wet so we had to search under bushes for reasonably dry stuff so we could make coffee and breakfast.

We were going to go onto our next stop that day but we decided to stay around because we didn?t know how much snow would be on the road and didn?t think it would be safe to drive through the highlands seeing the weather we were having here. So we tried to keep as dry as possible and wait the day out. During the breaks in the showers we took the opportunity to look around and get some images.

After being in this area for a couple of days the initial shock had started to wear off. It was actually quite unique. It may have been an ugly sight to start with but now it was really starting to grow on me, on both of us. With each change in light and weather conditions it threw out a new perspective. It was BEAUTIFUL!

That night we went to bed early. The worst part about being here now was the cold and the sleeping bag was warm. Next morning we packed up and took one more look at the beautiful ugliness before us and left.

There were a couple of things I noticed while here. There didn?t seem to be a lot in the way of wildlife. We didn?t see many birds, not even the chippie chippies which we would have expected to be here. There weren?t a lot of ants around either. It may have had something to do with the weather, I don?t know. It may also have had something to do with the environment in the area.

It was great to see the contrast of this area compared to the other places we had been. I am still amazed at the differences between both ends of the lake.