Australia
War Memorial Park

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    • Day 81–82

      Western Wilderness

      February 1 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

      Donnerstag:
      Als wir am Morgen aufwachen, ist der Himmel grau in grau und es regnet heftig. Wir brechen zu unserem nächsten Etappenziel, der Stadt Queenstown auf. Unterwegs wollen wir den Montezuma Wasserfall besichtigen, den höchsten in Tasmanien. Die 6 km zum carpark sind für den Sprinter eine echte Herausforderung: unbefestigte, glitschige und teils steile Zufahrt. Bei Regen starten wir durch den Regenwald zum Wasserfall, eine 10 km lange Wanderung hin und zurück. Schon bald brechen wir das Vorhaben ab, weil der Weg ebenfalls sehr steil und glitschig ist und uns von daher als zu riskant erscheint. So sehen wir den 104 m hohen Wasserfall nur in Google https://g.co/kgs/8k1nV9x

      In Queenstown beziehen wir auf einem Campingplatz einen sumpfartig abgesoffenen Stellplatz.

      Freitag:
      Nach einer weiteren kalten und nassen Nacht freuen wir uns sehr über die ersten Sonnenstrahlen am Morgen. Heute ist ein fauler Tag, heute lassen wir erstmal fahren. Wir haben Tickets für die Western Wilderness Railway gekauft und fahren mit dem Lynchford Express durch den Regenwald. Diese Eisenbahnstrecke war bis zur Mitte des 20 Jahrhunderts die einzige Möglichkeit Personen und Fracht zwischen dem dichten Regenwald und der Küste zu transportieren. Die Fahrt beginnt mit einem Glas Sekt und einem Lachs-Canapé. In Lynchford versucht Jutta ihr Glück mit Goldwaschen. Auf der Rückfahrt gibt es Scones mit heißer Schokolade.
      Am Nachmittag fahren wir dann noch bis zum Ort Strahan, an der Westküste Tasmaniens, wo wir zwei Nächte verbringen werden.
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    • Day 6

      Von Hobart nach Strahan

      February 26, 2020 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

      Früh am Morgen verliessen wir bei leichtem Regen das Hotel, in welches wir nach der Tour nochmals für eine Nacht zurückkehren werden (auch um unser "zurückgelassenes" Gepäck abzuholen).
      Nach einer Kaffeepause machten wir uns auf den Weg in den Mt. Field Nationalpark, um den Russell Wasserfall anzuschauen.
      Auf der knapp einstündigen Wanderung sahen wir einige Padimelon (kleine tasmanische Wallabies), den besagten Wasserfall und die höchsten Bäume von Tasmanien.
      Danach ging es an den Lake St. Clair, an welchem es leider regnete und die Sicht dadurch sehr schlecht war. Aufsteller dieses Haltes war jedoch ein Kurzschnabeligel, welchen wir gut auf der Futtersuche beobachten konnten.
      Nach einer Schlafpause im Bus liefen wir nochmals ein kurzes Stück durch den Regenwald bis zum Wasserfall des Franklin Rivers, bei dem sich die Sonne nochmals kurz zeigte.
      Anschliessend fuhren wir nach Strahan, wo wir unsere Unterkunft bezogen, kurz duschten und uns auf den Weg zum Sonnenuntergang machten.
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    • Day 20

      Strahan

      March 20 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

      Bought some berries from a berry farm and made our way through some pretty dramatic countryside to Lake St. Clair. Weather showery, but we managed to get a short walk in without getting wet. Lots of keen hikers kitted out with the full gear to do a few days expeditions. Continued from the plateau down to the coast, along roads similar to old passes through the Alps with narrow hairpin bends. They advertise this part of the island as "raw, untouched, untamed" and we'd agree. Our camper was an elephant and is now a mountain goat!Read more

    • Day 2,011

      Strahan

      November 25, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

      Another lazy day to finish our stay on the island. We woke up to rainfall which persisted for much of the morning. That was a shame, as we had been proposing to go back to the beach with our fishing rods. Instead we got ourselves organised for dismantling the camper in the dry spell forecast for the afternoon.
      In the evening we walked back through the village, past the theatre, from where the sound of laughter was ringing, and on to the restaurant View 42.
      There we ith the evening buffet menu - seafood galore, oysters,king prawns, tassie trout, smoked salmon, cold meats, hot dishes and wonderful salads, all to start with, followed by sweets of icecream,pavlova,raspberry tarts, lemon sorbet, blood orange sorbet (to die for,) amongst others,all finished off with coffee cheese amd biscuits.
      All you can eat too A young lad next to us had 4 plates of fishy stuff, before going on to the salads and hot dishes, he then had two or three desserts, before returning to the oysters and prawns. Thats the way to do it.
      Fabulous food and we did it justice.
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    • Day 2,010

      Strahan

      November 24, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      A lazy day today. The weather was, once again, fine, sunny and blue skies, so we took ourselves off to the beach.
      We drove to Macquarie Heads at the mouth of the harbour along a gravel road. Foxgloves aplenty by the roadsides. It was a bumpy gravel road once again, and at the end, a campsite where you could truly get away from it all.
      We plonked ourselves down on Ocean Beach and got out our books to read. This was clearly a popular spot for fishing, and we watched anglers up and down the beach cast their lines in hope, the most successful being a lady angler who pulled out numerous Tasmanian salmon in quite a short space of time. Sadly we had left our rods back in the trailer - otherwise we would have joined them all. Most were successful, and we were quite envious of them all cooking their fish this evening.
      Returning to Strahan we had a wander through the village and then back to site to make plans for our trip northward in the coming week.
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    • Day 2,009

      Strahan

      November 23, 2023 in Australia

      One of the must dos in Strahan is the Gordon River Cruise and tour of the Macquarie Harbour. We were advised by many people that the red boat is the one to go on, so that is what we did.
      Leaving Strahan at 9 am we spent 6 hours on the visit, both onboard and on shore. All the crew were delightful and the captain was eager to let visitors into the cabin to view the controls and to sit in the engineers seat. We had chosen our day well as the winds allowed for a trip through Hell's Gates - the narrow entrance to the massive Macquarie Harbour. It gets its name from the convicts who were forced to row through the narrows pulling the larger ship behind them. They were on their way to Sarah Island, the most brutal and remote secondary offenders detention centre in Tasmania. It predated Port Arthur which, upon its closure, was where the convicts were transferred. It was to become known as "hell on earth."
      A large lighthouse stands on the ocean side of the channel which we were able to view. Two further smaller light houses, within the harbour, help to define the navigable section of waterway.
      The harbour is host to a number of fish farms which grow on north atlantic salmon amongst others in large and deep pens.
      We stopped off at Sarah Island where Lyle showed us around the ruins of the old settlement. Lyle was a very enthusiastic guide and a member of the Round Earth Theatre Company. His descriptions of life on the island were very vivid. The island is now being claimed back by nature, it having been stripped of all greenery when in use as a prison. The prisoners were put to work making boats of various sizes, the huon pine slips still being in evidence.
      We enjoyed a very pleasant lunch on board, prior to venturing up into the Gordon River. We heard tales of the Piners who spent 8 months of their year up here cutting and collecting the huon pine, a remarkable slow growing soft wood, unique to Tasmania. The piners and early conservation activists saved this area from ruination by hydro electric schemes and it now forms part of the World Heritage Wildlife National Park which covers most of the south west of the island. The Huon pine is now a protected tree, the only timber that can now be collected is that which is washed down into the harbour by winter rainfall.
      The Gordon River is beautiful, with trees lining all hillsides surrounding it right down to the water line. The boat stopped off at a boardwalk to let people walk amongst the forest.
      Returning to Strahan we were given a demonstration at one of the two remaining saw mills in the area which is licensed to deal with Huon Pine. After that, we had booked ourselves into the local open-air theatre to see "The ship that never was," Australia's longest running play (30 years). It tells the story of an escape from the Island by ten convicts in a ship of their own making. There was a cast of two, Lyle being one of them, augmented by many drawn from the audience. The play was hilarious, great fun - and closed an absolutely brilliant day.
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    • Day 2,008

      Strahan

      November 22, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Today we drove north through Zeehan and onward to Rosebery. This is still mining country with large mining operations either side of Rosebery.
      We branched off just before the town to drive 6km to the carpark serving a bush walk to the Montezuma Waterfalls. This one also claims to be the highest waterfall in Tasmania.
      The road to the carpark was twisty and after a while gravel. There were a number of vehicles already in the car park when we arrived. This is billed as an easy 3 hour walk, which it proved to be as it followed the path of a disused mining tramway. Silver, gold, tin and copper were mined here, apparently, and there were some old adit mine shafts along the way. The
      waterfall at the end of the path was quite impressive with water tumbling down over 100metres. A suspension bridge crossed the gorge beneath the falls but did not give a better view than the more stable staging a few metres further along the track.
      On returning to our vehicle we travelled further north through the rainforest to the Stitt falls which were not photogenic, and marred by adjacent mining works, and then on to Tullah to have a wander along the foreshore of Lake Rosebery which was very pretty.
      A beer and a cider were welcome at the Tullah Lodge Hotel.
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    • Day 2,007

      Strahan

      November 21, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      Our first full day here. It is very much a town now geared around tourism. Its original roots are in mining -iron ore and copper around Queenstown - and logging, the ancient Huon Pine being the primary wood source.
      We walked the old railway track around the bay to Regatta Point and then took a detour on the way back to The Hogarth Falls. We walked through more beautiful rainforest on our way to the falls, an easy walk for us with no steps - wow!!! Recent walks we have done have generally involved copious amounts of steps or uphill climbs!
      We looked around the museum in the town, which was very interesting. Lots of information about the history of the area and the battle to conserve the natural beauty found here. Increasingly we feel great sympathy with the aborigines who originally lived here.
      After lunch we drove a few kms to do the Ocean Beach trail followed by a walk across the Henty Dunes. Not quite on a par with the Dune de Pyla (in France), but impressive nonetheless. The dunes were extensive and back onto Ocean Beach, the longest beach in Tasmania at 40k. We walked for 40 minutes carefully noting changes in direction so we did not get lost on our return. We were alone as we walked, and it was all very peaceful.
      Another day of walking - 18kms in total.
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    • Day 5

      Leaving Hobart

      April 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

      Before leaving Hobart we went to Mt Wellington again and managed to get to the top, 1.2km above the city. What an amazing view BUT freezing cold, apparently around 3degrees, and VERY WINDY. Worth the trip though. Heard that it snowed up there yesterday Brrrrr.
      Then more than 300km later we were at Strahan, a cute little village on the McQuarie Harbour. Stopped off at a defunct mine near Queenstown (nothing like our Queenstown) at a disused mine called Iron Ore Blow, drove up to a lookout and walked out on a platform overlooking the pit, awesome, BUT cold and WINDY.
      Finally at Strahan, lovely little town with heritage buildings.
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    • Day 6

      Strahan

      April 16, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      Headed out on a 33metre catamaran on McQuarie Harbour (6 times bigger than Sydney Harbour) out to the Southern Ocean then up into the Gordon River, interesting commentary on settlers and convicts. Went for a short walk into the bush at a Heritage Landing. On way back we stopped at Sarah Island for a look around at the ruins of Australia’s first penal colony, barbaric to say the least.
      Had lunch (and wine) on board and then passed the many salmon farms on the way back to Strahan.
      Scallop dinner at the local tavern was scrumptious!!!!
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    War Memorial Park

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