Jan 31, 2010 - Day Seven

Terraleah to Strahan

This morning we were up and at it with the sun, leaving our lodge by 7:30am.We had a quick continental style breaky and hit the road heading north along the west coast of Tassie.

Our first stop was at Lake St. Clair, a glacial carved depression which is the deepest freshwater lake in Australia dropping to depths of 200m.Lake St. Clair is the source for the Derwent River which we travelled along yesterday.We stopped for a few minutes to observe the lovely scenery and take some photos.

We visited Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair which is a World Heritage site.Here we did a few short hikes including Donaghy's Lookout, Franklin River and Nelson Falls. I can't stress how beautiful the landscape is, I guess you'll have to check out my photos (which even they cannot capture the beauty!)

We then made our way toward Strahan via Queenstown, a copper mining town.This region was void of trees which is very unusual for Tasmania.If you looked out one side of the bus there would be a lush cool temperate rainforest, and on the other side eroded, treeless hilltops.We checked into our cabin style accommodation around 2:30pm just after a nice tandoori chicken lunch along the harborfront.

At 3pm I opted to partake in the additional 5 hour cruise along the harbor and Gordon River.The ship was a fair size and quite empty.I think there must only have been about 30 passengers (10 from our tour!)The tour had commentary throughout the 5 hours, but it was such a gorgeous day that we spent most of the time out on the top deck.The deck was SO windy that we could lean into the wind and it would hold us up! After about 2 hours out on the deck we docked on land to do a quick walk through a traditional Tassie forest.Here we saw a Huon Pine tree that was 2 500 years old!It looked as if it was a fallen tree about to die, but it was actually quite alive and even reproducing!The trees carry reproductive agents which establish on a tree and a whole stand of trees will grow out of the "fallen" tree.

Back on board we were treated to a lovely buffet style dinner.I filled my plate and even tried some traditional Tassie Smoked Salmon.I'm really trying to like seafood.. but it's just not happening with the salmon.At least I can say I gave it a go!

After dinner we stopped at Sarah Island--- a penal settlement from 1822-1833.Australian convicts were brought to this island to serve their time.At the beginning the convicts were given ANY type of work as long as they worked like slaves all day long and were fed very little(some were forced to dig holes and then fill them back in!)As the years went on the tasks changed and eventually the convicts were able to assist in the building of boats.The conditions on Sarah Island were so treacherous that many prisoners attempted to escape.Let me stress that the island is NOWHERE close to anything!It may have taken us 3 hours or so from the mainland, but back in their day it was a week's journey by boat!Suicide was strictly frowned upon as they believed that the devil would steal your soul, so arranged murder was very common among friends.Many convicts escaped the island but later died of starvation.There was one man who almost succeeded by escaping with a few friends and eventually resorting to cannibalism!Our tour of Sarah Island lasted about an our and then we all enjoyed a leisurely boat ride back to Strahan harbor.

A day on the water seemed to tire us all out.We had hoped to go for a bit of a night swim, but we all crashed as soon as we got to our cabins!