Strahan.
Cold morning. We dug up beanies and other warm weather gear and after breakfast we jumped in the car to warm up and headed for the harbour where we wanted to book a cruise over the Gordon River. Lady luck again was not to be seen. We planned to go on the morning cruise but that was fully booked but the afternoon cruise still had some spots available so we decided to go for this trip. A nice gesture of the lady behind the desk was that, if someone didn’t turn up for the morning cruise she could give us a ring. “Do you have a mobile phone?”, she asked. “Yes we do.” Unfortunately in this region Telstra had the monopoly and since I did the telecommunication with another company, that option was no longer available.
Back at the camping we made coffee and left for a tour in and around Strahan, which is a lovely place.
Hogarth Falls
We took a stroll in the “PEOPLES” park to see a wonderful waterfall (Hogarth Falls) and visited the woodworking workplace and gallery (Beautiful handmade artwork). To contact our home base we went to an ‘internet cafe’. They were still on “dial-up”. Cost, $2.50 per fifteen minutes. It took about that long to get connected and since we did not have all the time in the world, we had to be at the boat, we left without sending or checking emails.
The cruise was a real eye-opener. We really, really enjoyed this trip.
Hell’s Gate Lighthouse
First they sailed towards “Hell’s Gate”, which is the only entrance to Strahan (from the sea). On the way we saw some disorientated sperm-whales who went on to the river. One already had died but there were a few more and helpers tried to lead them to sea again. We later heard, they were successful.
We sailed on a boat called ‘Lady Jane Franklin 2’ and were wondering what had happened with ‘Lady Jane Franklin 1’ and when we reached ‘Hell’s Gate’ the captain informed us that, during heavy weather ‘Lady Jane Franklin 1’ had hit some rocks and sunk which is not a very comfortable feeling when you are at that particular spot. Fortunately the weather and sea were very calm, helping us to keep control over our nerves.
From here we went on to the Gordon River. On both sides the cool and very impressive rain forests of Tasmania.
Sarah Island
At Sarah Island ( a convict settlement operating from 1822-1833) a tour-leader was waiting to show us the remnants of the settlement and tell the horror stories about this place.
After having had dinner on the boat we arrived later than expected ( dark) back in Strahan.
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