Our flight from Melbourne to Launceston was only short but a fierce head wind ensured it wasn't boring. Our first night was in Launceston and then it was off to explore Tasmania for 5 days then finishing back at Launceston for a 4 day industry conference . Not being particularly flush we elected to be very budget minded, so with this in mind we hired our car from 'Rent a bomb'.

We set off to the east coast passing through some of the oldest rain forest in the world. We decided the east coast itself was similar to ours with picturesque but isolated fishing villages and fairly barren where we had an overnight stop. We headed off the next morning and decided to take a short cut, the road showed as gravel but a lot shorter. As we got further along we realized why it wasn't the main road as it narrowed with either cliff faces, steep ravines or rain forest jungle on both sides. Given our tight time frame we were still travelling at a reasonable trot, that is, until we rounded a bend to confront a logging truck, also travelling fast as he was not expecting any on coming traffic. With both reflexes at work we passed with I'm sure only paint work separating us from both the truck and the cliff face.

Our next destination was to be Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula but we elected to stay at a cheaper hotel at Eaglehawk Neck. It turned out to be walking distance from the Tessellated Pavement, quite a unique patchwork caused by tidal erosion.

Next day we spent wandering around Port Arthur's ruins (est 1833), a very sombre experience as we learnt of the horrific life experienced by the convicts. We took a boat trip out to the 'Isle of the dead' the colonies early cemetery, not far off shore in Mason Cove, where again we were told stories of the hardships. After Port Arthur we visited other attractions on the Tasman Peninsula including the blowhole and Tasmans Arch.
 
We had an overnight stop near Hobart in an on-site van then travelled on to Strahan via Lake St Clair and Queenstown. Queenstown is or was a very large copper producing town which has caused the surrounding landscape to take on a barren, greenish hue which looks sort of moonscape. Just past Queenstown the road narrows to a very skinny two lanes and it was just our luck to catch up to a semi moving a house. We had no hope of passing so our trip to Strahan was at a crawl resulting in us arriving in town quite late.

A check of all the visible accommodation proved fruitless, nothing was available. We ducked around to the tourist office just as they were closing, fortunately they were very nice and got on the phone for us, no luck. We were about to head off when one of the ladies said what about old Mrs ? she sometimes takes in people!. Another call and we were in. Yeah!! Mrs ? showed us into a lovely room and said we were welcome to make ourselves at home. She also said she would be out in the morning but she would leave a continental breakfast and would leave the money and let ourselves out?! Talk about blind trust.
 
The previous evening we had also tried to book a passage on the cruise to go up the Gordon River but that too was booked out, so we put our name on the wait list and then booked a helicopter flight.

The next morning as luck would have it we were confirmed onto the cruise so cancelled the more expensive flight. The cruise was fantastic taking us out through the heads 'Hells Gates' to open sea (where many early convict ships were lost entering the harbour), onto the convict Sarah island and up the Gordon to a rain forest walk. The rain forest walk takes you to trees which began life over 2000 years ago. The Huon Pine was heavily logged for early ship building because of its non rot ability in water, can still be seen on the river banks. While in Strahan we bought the 1860 written book 'For the term of his natural life' by Marcus Clark a novel based principally on Sarah Island and the Women's island. While Port Arthur was only for men, Sarah Island did have some females. The book was a bit stilted but a fantastic account of what life must have been like.
 
We left Strahan and continued on intending to stay at cradle mountain lodge. Unfortunately while Cradle Mountain was very scenic there were no vacancies, so we moved onto Ulverstone. We were lucky enough to get a room next door to the spa room so had an enjoyable last night of our travels before heading back to Launceston for our work conference.

Footnote: The Tasmanian Wilderness and Australian Convict Sites are UNESCO World Heritage listed.


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