Wednesday 12th April 2018

Lex writes: The alarm clock started our day at 7:00 with a cheery little ditty. It meant "get up". After a slow tea/coffee, the pace quickened as we prepared for a short drive to the Strahan docks. Our mission was to catch the Heritage Cruises vessel- the Harbour Master. This catamaran was to provide us and about a hundred and fifty other tourists with a day on Macquarie Harbour.

Our cruise boat, The Harbour Master

The cruise left the dock at 08:30, and headed for the entrance to the harbour. This is only 60 metres wide, and is known as Hell's Gate. The passage got its name from the local convicts at the penal island in the harbour - Sarah Island. More on that later...

Hell's Gate

 



Our captain took us past the lighthouse at the entrance and just a little bit out into the sea beyond. Then he turned the boat around and headed for the local Fish farms. Three companies farm Ocean Trout and/or Atlantic Salmon in these underwater cages. The Atlantic Salmon I've been eating while in Tasmania comes from here.

Fish farm cages

 



The next stop on the cruise was Sarah Island. We followed our guide around this tiny island. She showed us where the buildings were, and where the ships were built. The tour was excellent - I would recommend it to anyone - history buff or not. Enough of the buildings remained to make the stories real, and to give us a clear idea of conditions here. The island started building ships as a way of  using the stockpiles of Huon pine timber, about the time the second commandant of the place took office (not a co-incidence. The first commandant drowned just off the island, and deserved it). This had the effect of giving the convicts a working and viable lifestyle. Unfortunately, the ship building industry was closed down to prevent competition with commercial ship builders. Sarah island was closed in 1834, and convicts transferred to Port Arthur.

The convicts regarded Sarah Island as hell for a number of reasons. There was virtually no escape; discipline was harsh and floggings were common; the work was extremely hard and unrelenting; rations were strictly controlled; and the military officers were corrupt. For this reason, the narrow entrance to the harbour was known as Hell's Gate. Not the place for a holiday then!

The slipway used to launch boats made on the island. Only two bluegum logs are visible.

Our guide showing us one of the forges

Suffolk oven used to cook up to 400 loaves of bread

Ruin on Sarah Island

After our tour of the island, we hopped back on the boat, and made for the Gordon River. This feeds the harbour with millions of litres of water every day. The water is brown because it has leached some of the tannin out of the peat it flows through. There is enough water/tannin to colour the water of the whole harbour (250 Square kilometres of it). The river system drains a huge area of wilderness, some of which we saw today. The boat travelled 12 Km up the river, and it was never narrower than about 50 metres. The forest came right down to the water on both sides, for the entire 12 Km. We didn't see one plastic bottle or piece of paper in the water. Just magic.

A typical river scene

 

Robyn at the front of the boat

 





At the furthest point on the river, we were treated to a short walk through the rain forest. Then it was time to head back down the river, down the length of the harbour, and back to Strahan. There was still something to see.

Mount Lyell from Macquarie Harbour

 

 



The boat dropped us just a few metres short of its home dock. The reason was that there is a historic, working sawmill right there, metres from the water. It uses a crosscut saw in a frame to cut Huon pine into slabs. Delightful to see, even if it wasn't the most efficient way to cut the timber. There was, of course, a shop attached to the place. It displayed Huon pine, Sassafras and Tasmanian Blackwood timbers. All well made, but as usual, too many bowls and cutting boards.

We headed home to have a cup of tea. For a bit of exercise, we took a walk through Peoples Park, and up to Hogarth Falls. The walk was only 20 minutes return, but wound through tree ferns and cool rainforest. The falls were quite nice, but there are others more spectacular.

Hogarth Falls

 

The rainforest canopy from below

 



From there, it was back home for us. We changed and drove to Hamer Grill (same place as last night) for dinner. We waited for 15 minutes for a table, but that was quick. While we were seated dozens of people came in looking for a table and a meal. All had to wait. If I ever buy a café, it will be in Strahan. The place is a gold mine.

Finally, after a long day, we are back in our cabin, ready for a good night's sleep. We leave Strahan tomorrow to travel to Moina, near Cradle Mountain.

Til then....

Tuesday, 10 April 2018                         Derwent Bridge   -   Strahan

Robyn writes:  Another huge day on the road in Tassie! We were up nice and early this morning, as we knew we had quite a bit of travel to get through before lunch time. By the time 8 o’clock rolled around and breakfast was on in the hotel (included in our tariff) we were pretty much packed. They provided us with a good breakfast of toast, cereal, fruit, and you could boil your own egg. I put mine in for 3 and a half minutes, and it was awfully undercooked. It was THEN that our friendly hostess commented that at such a high altitude, you need to boil your eggs for at least another full minute…..oh well, you live and you learn! After a chat with our friendly hosts (who actually hail from Kingaroy – they used to run a newsagent there) we finished packing and set off just before 9 towards the west.

 Goodbye, Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel!

Stunning scenery along the road

As we’d bought the 24-hour National Parks parking pass yesterday, we were able to plan to do two short walks along the way to Strahan. We stopped first at Frenchman’s Cap – here we had the choice of the 3 to 5 DAY, extremely arduous climb to the top of the mountain, or the 15 minutes return to the Franklin River. Wisely, we decided on the latter! So, we clambered down the mountain trail to the river, where we found an extremely cool suspension bridge. Only one person at a time, but we really enjoyed it. The Franklin is only a small river at this stage. Then we headed back up the hill (quite steep) and arrived, puffing and panting, back at the car to continue our trip. About 25 km further along was the second walk we wanted to do: Nelson Falls. This was about 20 minutes return on very good paths; not steep at all. The falls were really quite spectacular, lovely to see. After admiring the wonders of nature, we realised we were running a bit short of time so headed westward once more.

Suspension bridge at the Franklin River

Nelson Falls

This leg of the trip was some of the most spectacular scenery of the whole holiday so far – the mountains of the west coast heading into Queenstown and Strahan are quite incredible, and we were constantly pulling up to gape in amazement. We wished we’d had more time to do more of the walks to see them properly. There were kilometres of winding road as we went down, down, down the mountains. Truly amazing scenery.

 Sadly, we just didn't have time for this - a walkway around the mountain you can see to a big waterfall. On the 'next time' list!

 Coming into Queenstown

Spectacular mountains!

We made good time, and arrived in Strahan just after quarter past 12, in plenty of time for our steam train ride we’d booked at 2.15. We were able to book right in to our unit at the Regatta Point Inn, located conveniently right next to the railway station! We had lunch there, then organised our stuff for the train and strolled over in plenty of time to board.

Strahan station

The train was packed – heaps of tourists anxious to see the wilderness. The ride took 4 hours and wound its way up into the mountains along the King River. Along the way we had three stops to refill the loco with water (and for toilet breaks & short strolls in the forest), and were treated to commentary which told us the history of the railway. (It was established to move out copper from the Mt Lyell Copper Mine.) An incredible feat of engineering and construction, considering it was done without any modern equipment – just pickaxes and shovels to build it. At the second and top stop, the engine was turned around for the return trip, which the two engineers did by hand on the turntable! A great trip with wonderful scenery and lots of history as well. The line still goes all the way to Queenstown, with a weekly journey all the way from end to end - maybe next time! We arrived back in Strahan just as the sun was setting.

 Along the edge of the bay

 Then along the King River

Our engine - named Mt Lyell No. 5

 Turning the train by hand
 

 Rainforest walk under a bridge
 

Stopped at Lower Landing Station

 

Robyn and the engine

 

The Iron Bridge
 

 

Soon after, we went looking for a few groceries and our evening meal. A peek into the window of the Regatta where we are staying revealed a room full of grey heads – a busload of senior cits were enjoying their dinner! We decided to look elsewhere, and soon discovered that everyone else in Strahan had the same thought. The first café we tried had a notice up saying that they were booked out, and their earliest table free was at 8.15. Bugger!

We went next door to the Hamer Grill in an old hotel, and the lad there promised us a table by about 7. We took that, whipped our groceries home, got changed, headed back and were seated straight away! For such a busy restaurant, they were amazingly quick with our meals. Lex had a delicious (and not spicy) jerk chicken. I ordered the butter chicken, and it was the spiciest one I’ve ever had! I was actually having trouble eating it, so in desperation asked the waiter for more yoghurt raita to try to put the fire out. This must happen quite regularly, as he apologised to me about it later and said I wasn’t the only one!

Anyway, after our meal (I had to have an icecream scoop to stop the burning) we headed home, feeling quite exhausted. Having fun is very, very tiring! Tomorrow, we are going on a Gordon River cruise so hoping that might be a bit restful…..

 

Monday, 9 April 2018                                 Hobart  -  Derwent Bridge

Robyn writes: It’s 8pm and outside is getting cold, cold, cold, but inside our comfy room at the Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel, all is warm and cosy with the heater gently warming us. So too is the post-alcoholic glow of having several drinks with Nigel and Heather, inhabitants of the Adelaide Hills who are currently also holidaying here….Ahh, the joys of travelling and meeting people!

Lex set the alarm for 7 am this morning which seemed horribly early after several days of sleeping in a bit – but we soon dragged ourselves out to a cold and rainy outlook, and made ourselves caffeine and breakfast before the dreaded task of packing began in earnest. Some of yesterday’s washing – thick socks especially – STILL wasn’t dry so it just had to go in a bag on its own. Finally, by just before nine, we were ready to say a sad farewell to our Battery Point unit and begin the task of navigating out of the city. This didn’t get off to a good start when we turned right instead of left as the GPS had obviously intended; it just wasn’t saying so! Anyway, after about twenty minutes of tortured navigation and worrying which lane to be in, we were finally on the A1 and heading out of Hobart towards the west.

 

Goodbye for now, Portsea Place

We followed the Derwent Valley along for a good deal of the way for the first hour or so through changing scenery. It was obvious that early settlement had followed the river as we saw very old buildings along the way. As it’s early autumn, a lot of the leaves are starting to change colour so some of the trees were just lovely, especially the poplars which are very popular (no pun intended!) as wind breaks in rural areas. A bit after ten, we stopped in the little town of Hamilton at a wonderful little café in an old building dating back to 1840, Glen Clyde House, which is now a gallery and tea rooms. For many years (nearly a century) it was a coaching inn and the rooms are still small and very old. We had a lovely morning tea – I had a scone with jam and cream (they say they’re the best in Tassie and I see no need to dispute that) and Lex had a slice of homemade orange and almond cake. A lovely place to stop and break the trip.

 A lovely place to stop and break the trip! Lex with hawthorn bushes in the background.

Then we were back on the road again heading west up through some stunning forests in the mountains of the Central Highlands (their Central Highlands appears to be MUCH higher than ours!) Of course, hydro-electricity is big here, and we stopped to have a quick look at the Tarraleah Power Station along the way. Impressive engineering. Then we drove through the highland lakes district to finally reach Derwent Bridge, where we’re staying, just after 12.

 

Hydro is big in Tassie!

We easily found our hotel here and went in – couldn’t get into our room at that stage, but we both had a lovely lunch of potato and leek soup (delicious), checked in and got our room key, then headed off to explore the area a bit.

Going into 'The Wall' - sorry, no photos allowed so we can't show you what it looked like...

The first place we went was ‘The Wall’. We hadn’t heard of this before coming to Tassie, but word-of-mouth along the way had told us about it. It’s a fairly new attraction and photos aren’t allowed, so there’s not much on the internet about it. It’s a big building holding two walls (50 metres each) of wonderful Huon pine carvings by local artist Greg Duncan about various aspects of the history of the Central Highlands. Some of the panels are intentionally left unfinished and you can see how he plots and carries out his carving. The man is a genius with faces and hands especially. A lot of it is very sad (settlement history of any area often has that effect, I find.) Anyway, it was wonderful to see. As seems to be usual in Tassie, you run into people you know – I came around a corner to find Lex deep in conversation with John Buller, who used to be in Telstra in Rocky, and his wife Sandy. We had a good chat to them and compared travel notes (as you do!)

Then we drove the 5km to Lake St Claire National Park. Today we had the whole afternoon, so we decided to pay the $24 car fee to have a look around the lake. (We thought that there was the $12 hiker fee on top of that, but apparently not. We just paid the money and got out of there!) It’s a 24-hour (National Park) parking pass, so we can also use it tomorrow morning on the way west as there are a few little walks we’d like to do along the way to Strahan. By this stage, the weather had cleared to a glorious day of about 16 degrees and quite sunny. We had a lovely walk which took a few hours around the lake to Watersmeet (where two rivers come together before going into the lake) then up and around the Platypus Bay circuit. Here there are allegedly platypus to be seen frolicking in the shallows…..all I can say is that they stayed well-hidden. We now put platypus spotting right up there with otters in England and the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland – haven’t spotted a single one! Anyway, it was a lovely afternoon for a walk, and the scenery was beautiful. The tall trees are so impressive, and there was the biggest variety of colourful fungi and lichens we’ve ever seen. By half past four we were fairly weary and ready for a rest, so we came back to our hotel and moved into our room. Our landlord warned us to put the heater on early, as apparently it will be about 6 degrees in the morning!

Platypus? Where are you, platypus???

 

 

At about 5.30 we wandered into the bar to have a drink before tea. It’s a huge, chalet/lodge type building with huge, high ceilings and two massive log fireplaces, so it was toasty warm. There are heaps of motorhomes parked out in front, and we got talking to Nigel and Heather, from the Adelaide Hills, while having a few drinks. Finally, at about 7, they headed back to their van to cook tea while we reeled to the bar to quickly order food! After a delicious and filling meal (lamb shank for me; pasta ragu for Lex) we are feeling much better. Our room is lovely and warm and so very comfortable! Tomorrow morning, we are off to Strahan to explore the wilderness there. Fingers crossed the weather continues to be kind to us….

8 April 2018                 Hobart

 Lex Writes:           Laundry day!

The Machine Laundry Café was our best option to get some clothes washed. It is located in a small square just off Salamanca Street. The morning was cool and showery but quite pleasant at about 12 degrees. One load of washing, one cup of coffee, and three drying cycles later, our clothes were clean, but not dry. We took them home and spread them around the apartment like lichens on rocks. Then we went down to Salamanca Street to meet Peter Thompson, Robyn’s cousin.

Machine Laundry Café is both a laundromat AND a very trendy café! Luckily we got there early and secured both a washing machine and a table. A fabulous idea.

Robyn takes over because Lex is doing the washing up. And that sort of behaviour is admirable and deserves to be encouraged!
We met Peter at 11 o’clock down at Salamanca at the Abel Tasman statue ( a good place to meet ) and wandered around the docks area admiring the views until we found a lovely restaurant overlooking the docks area to stop for coffee. We sat outside as it was warming up by this stage and the rain had disappeared (we are taking credit for bringing Emerald weather with us. Has worked a treat up until this stage, anyway!) We had an excellent view of the Aurora Australis again, and also the HMAS Waller, the submarine which is in the harbour at present. We had a great catch up with Peter – it’s been over a decade since we last saw him at our Aunty Anne’s 80^th birthday party.

 HMAS Waller in port

 Arthur Circus, the most adorable circular street in Hobart!

St George's - the bell tower is lit up at night and can be seen for miles

After a long and leisurely coffee break, we decided to go for a drive, so Peter took us off for a scenic view of Hobart – always great to be with a local! We saw Arthur Circus, an absolutely adorable little round street of perfect Georgian cottages, all beautifully presented, with a park area in the middle. Just beautiful. For the last few days and nights, we’ve noticed a lit-up tower a few blocks to the south of where we are staying, and we’ve finally identified it as St George’s Anglican Church bell tower; a real landmark in the city.

Then Peter took us to the Hobart Botanical Gardens – these are 200 years old this year, and he says that apparently Prince Edward is arriving to officially honour the occasion on Tuesday. I’m missing a royal visit by one day! Bugger. Anyway, the gardens are just lovely, so we had a stroll around a lot of them. Some amazing plants and trees that just don’t grow in Emerald! Also a beautiful Japanese garden section that was really well done. We were also able to put names to some of the trees we’ve seen along the way but haven’t known the names of. Finally, we realized that it was 2 o’clock and must be lunch time, so we had a delicious meal in the restaurant, ‘Succulent’, overlooking the gardens.

 Just like Japan!

 This room was really interesting - and cold! It's the Subantarctic Room which replicates the conditions on Macquarie Island and the plants which live there. Those circular vents you can see on the right wall in the photo were blasting us with icy air!

 A lovely lunch at 'Succulent'

 Gardener's Cottage and statue

Lovely landscaping - lots of different areas

After that, we went to the National Trust building ‘Runnymede’ which is a lovely old house built in 1840. For many years it was owned by a whaling captain so there was a lot of information about the whaling industry, which was huge in Tassie in the early years. Unfortunately, by this stage it was almost 4, when the house closes, so we weren’t able to go in, but we enjoyed a look around the gardens, coach house and stables. It’s a beautiful old building, and very well cared for.

 

Runnymede

Peter then took us up to The Domain, the large open spaces for public use, and to the suburbs of North Hobart. He wanted to show us a Greek-style building erected by Lady Franklin (wife of Arctic explorer John Franklin), and when we got there we discovered that it was actually open, and featuring a display by 80 year-old local Hobart painter Joan Humble, who specialises in landscapes. She was there, so it was lovely to talk to her about her work. We really enjoyed looking at her paintings and wishing we could afford the thousands of dollars to take one home! However, there was a raffle of one of her pieces there and Lex and I have both bought tickets so one of us is sure to win it….

Greek-style building in North Hobart bushland. As you do!

It was getting late by this stage, so Peter brought us back to our cosy little unit and came in for a cuppa, before he headed back to the Huon Valley where he lives. Great to catch up!

After that, Lex suggested that we should go out and have a drink before I cooked tea, so as a good wife does, I agreed with his suggestion, and we wandered back down the hill. This unit really is sooo convenient for Salamanca and the docks – a brilliant location. Rain had set in again but then decided to clear, so we admired the views as we walked right around to Macquarie Dock  where we found Frogmore Creek’s restaurant and bar. Frogmore Creek is one of the wineries that receives rave reviews, so I was anxious to try their wares. I had a lovely glass of the Pinot Grigio and Lex tried Bellgrove Rye Whiskey, which he’s been wanting to sample (he reports that it is nice enough but he wouldn’t buy it again – good for a novelty!) I, on the other hand, was really impressed with my glass of ’42 Degrees’, so we called in at ‘Salamanca Fresh’, a local produce store in the Salamanca Markets, and picked myself up a souvenir bottle on the way home!

 Lovely views around the docks this evening

Then it was home to cook tea, rearrange damp washing (bloody socks are still not dry!) and ignore the thought of packing. It’s been a big day! Tomorrow we are off to Derwent Bridge at Lake St. Clare, so will be out of email contact for a day or so. Fingers crossed for fine weather….