Decided to pack up at Cradle Mountain and push off as rain was forecasted, but had to do one last walk before we left. We were packed up and at the beginning of our 1.5hr return walk to Crater Lake by mid morning. Amanda told us it would be a good one to do so off we went. The girls were in a surprisingly good mood to walk, and when they weren't we just sang which made them forget what they were doing!! Lol.. Anyway after umpteen steps and steep climbs thru forests and passing small waterfalls, we made it. It was beautiful, like a minnie Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain. It had a little wooden hit on the edge of the lakes water and a mountain as its back drop. It was stunning, bloody freezing, but stunning! Marty skimmed a few rocks on the water which the girls tried to do, Boo got two skims which was impressive, then we headed back down. The walk up to Crater Lake had a tiny part of the Overlander Track in it (a famous treacherous walk in Oz), do at least we can say we have done some of it, even if it was only 500m or so!! Lol... Anyway we were about a km from reaching the car when it started to drizzle, we could see the car but then the rain really set in so out come the coats (thanks Amanda) and we ran back to the car.
It was too wet to stop and make lunch do we decided to start our drive to Strahan, our next stop for two nights, on the West coast of Tassie. It wasn't till around two o'clock that the rain backed off and we could stop to make lunch, wraps by the road once again. It was past cold and bloody freezing and there seemed like no blue sky was anywhere near, l dreaded getting to camp as rain looked like it was coming again. We pulled up to Strahan by four o'clock and got out to Macquarie Heads and found the campground, cost us $6 per night, awesome l thought. Had sea views and a jetty with campgrounds in a bush setting with toilets!! We just pulled up and it started pelting down raining!!! OMG what luck right? It was set in so Marty and l got out to start putting the tent up, l got the raincoats out and put them on, but Marty refused to do his up, he'd cracked the s***s with the rain and was being stubborn. Anyway the girls played happily in the car till we were dine, Marty was soaking wet but l was fairly dry thanks to doing my coat up, but he didn't want to hear that of course!! Had hotdogs in bread for tea boiled up under the awning off the car (been a godsend) and we settled in the tent for the night. Rained and rained and rained!!! Had to keep drying to roof off as it had gotten wet whilst setting up
in the rain but after a while it stopped dripping... Eventually fell asleep with having to out my head in the sleeping bag it was so cold!!
Woke the next morning to our alarm as we had booked in to do the Gordon River Cruise today on the Lady jan Franklin II vessel. Again it was a miserable weather day, overcast and drizzling already. Have realized very early into our trip to Tassie that l have under packed with the warm weather clothes and reckon the shorts and t-shirts won't come out much, if, at all!! Anyhow, we boarded the boat with minutes to spare as we were running a tad late this morning. We were greeted straight away by this friendly tour lady and she made small talk with the girls, she then took us to our seats, right at the front of the boat near the kids play area. Fantastic were my first thoughts as she said there were only two other small kids on board so we would probably have the area to ourselves. Second thoughts were, at least girls won't get bored!!! We took off on our four hour cruise heading out of Strahan and out of the sea where we intoning salmon farms which looked interesting. We then headed into the mouth of the Gordon River. It is a world heritage area and the forests lining the river were gorgeous, we even saw a small waterfall on the edge of the bank going into the river. The water in the river was however not nice to look at. It had a dark brown/black color to it, reminding us of dark Bundaberg rum, even the girls pointed the color out.. We pulled up to a rainforest walk area and got off to look around. It was spectacular and do different from the other rainforests we've seen so far up north Australia. It was cold, moss filled and full of lush green plants and huge trees. We even saw a 20,000 year old tree, awesome!! The girls had fun counting all the mud chimneys!! They were small narrow mud hills that looked like chimneys that the burrowing crayfish make coming up from the mud, they did look cool. We got back on the boat and headed up the Gordon River to our next stop, Sarah Island. This is Tasmania's oldest convict settlement, operating from 1822 to 1833. Sarah Island was proposed by Lt Governor Sorell as a "place of banishment and security for the worst description of convicts" and as such developed the reputation as one of the severest of the penal settlements established during the history of transportation. Our tour guide, Janelle, told us the tales and story of Sarah Island in the most charismatic way, the best story teller l have heard in a long time. Boo was taken in by it and loved listening to her talk. We spent about 45 mins on the Island and came away feeling like l had just gotten the best history lesson ever, loved it! Can't believe how we treated convicts back in the day, disgraceful... Anyhow, got back on the boat and had a buffet lunch of salad and meat, delicious. Headed back to Strahan and got off the boat around 2:30pm, just in time for the rain to start again!!! Pelted down. We were going to take a drive to pass the time but thought we should go back and check the tent. Got back to camp and emptied off the water on top of the tent, not too bad really. Then the rain stopped!! Awesome.. Marty made a fire and we thawed out. Cooked up some much needed veggies and meat for tea and had a walk round the area which we hadn't been able to do till now. After a while we headed to bed and prayed for no rain tonight as it was pack up day tomorrow.....
Bell Xx