Saturday 23rd March 2013....Happy birthday Mum, love you. We're heading north west to Strahan and some history.
We drove through a lot of rain to get to Strahan but were lucky with the walks we did along the way, the rain stopped every so often and we had on our wet weather gear so we were fine. The views of the Franklin along the way were spectacular.
We stopped at the "Wall in the Wilderness" which was fabulous, just so amazing that someone has privately done all this carving and we were not expecting it to be in a big pavilion. It is a "work in progress" started in 2005 and expected to be completed in 2015. All done by this one guy, Greg Duncan. The WALL spans 100 metres and depicts the history of the region. It was raining when we went in there and still raining when we came out.
We stopped at Lake Clair, actually it was raining there so we didn't get to see very much of the lake, just a stop for some soup for lunch.
Driving into Queenstown was spectacular and a very windy, steep drive with wind and rain. The devastation that the copper mining has done is amazing and so sad to see but fortunately the vegetation is beginning to grow back but it will be hundreds of years before it is restored.
Took us a while to find our cottage and eventually the lady who is the owner came out from another property to help us, seems that if we had of been able to print our instructions we would have seen the actual address. Without phone reception we were wondering what we would do. Anyway our "Cosy Cottage" is very good, it is at the back of the owners (Margot & Mark) property, 2 bedroom and lots of space and Chris can turn around in the bathroom.....big improvement on Port Huon. Plus we have a wood heater which by the likes of the weather we will put to good use.
Sunday 24th March, last night we had gale force winds and torrential rain, it was like that when we woke up, so we stayed in bed a little later. After a late brekky we drove down to the harbour and booked tickets for the Gordon River Boat Cruise tomorrow, leaving at 8:30am - we have the top deck best seats and it includes lunch and morning tea. Also booked the Wilderness Train (it has government funding now but I think is changing hands) for Tuesday, leaving from Strahan to Queenstown and then the bus back to Strahan. Departure time is 10:15 (so I can go for a run that morning). Again we have the best seats with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.
So once we had our bookings done we went to the Info center and found a walk to do in the afternoon and then a drive out to Macquarie heads and Ocean Beach - the Southern Ocean was just cracking in.
Once we got back we started looking at accommodation in Ulverstone and can't get anything for the night of the 27th, so we asked Margot here if we can book another night and that is fine so we booked at Ulverstone from the 28th March and out on 1st April.
Then we drove back down to the harbour and went to the play called The Ship that Never Was, a production that has been going on for 20 years, the longest running play in Australia. It was very entertaining and very funny and based on a true story of a convict escape from here.