(Monday 17th - Wednesday 19th Nov) Strahan had marvellous weather for our day trips on the Gordon River Cruise and the Abt rack railway and we ended up staying four days. The cruise ship was very comfortable and managed to travel at up to 55km/hr, which is just as well as Macquarie Harbour is six times the size of Sydney Harbour and we went from end to end and back, including a short venture out through the narrow entrance at Hells Gate and onto the Southern Ocean. We stopped off at Sarah Island, which was the most feared penal settlement in the early 1800s.
The West Coast Wilderness Railway was less comfortable and considerably slower, but quite an experience to be taken up through the King River Gorge behind a steam loco which uses the Abt rack and pinion system to get up and down the really steep bits (1:12). The railway follows the King and Queen Rivers into Queenstown, a total of 40 km. Sadly the rivers are both dead as they are heaviliy poluted with copper tailings from the days when the mine was working.
Have come away with a car full of tassie timber including Blackwood, Sassafras and of course some chunks of Huon Pine which is now quite rare and expensive because felling has been banned - the sawmills can only use dead wood that is found on the forest floor.
We are now camped beside Lake St Clair in the swirling mist (Thursday 20th)
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