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Published: January 20th 2009
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Well - only 11 days since my last entry and SO MUCH has happened. Been to so many beautiful places. Tassie IS what everyone says it is. So unspoilt (mostly) and rugged and ridiculously beautiful. Driving can get a little testy - continuously uphill and downhill. The whole state is mountainous - well, I haven't reached any L_O_N_G plains yet.
After Ulverstone we headed west along the north coast to Burnie - where paper mills used to be the mainstay of employment. However with the cessation of logging to a large degree, tourism is probably now the major employer. In fact, I would say tourism is Tassies major industry. Then timber plantations, salmon farming, lobsters and cool climate fruits (berries of all sorts and grapes, also stone fruits).
From Burnie to Somerset to Wynyard to Table Cape to THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH I HAVE EVER SEEN - Boat Harbour Beach. The water is crystal clear blue-aqua, the sand sooooo white but (oh dear) the water was FREEZING. Didn't even get my whole foot wet but it looked so inviting. I know, I'm a sook - my Mum would have been in like a shot !!! So many wonderful views
along the north coast. On to Sisters Beach, Rocky Cape, Stanley. Stanley has a landmark called The Nut which is actually a large isthmus that juts out in between very large tidal areas on each side of it. There is a chairlift to the top and quite spectacular view to be had up there. At Smithton I found THE BIGGEST CHERRRIES I have ever seen in my life AND yummy too.
From there we went slightly inland and south-west to the west coast (kind of just cut the corner so-to-speak). Went to Green Point and Bluff Hill Point and arrived at the Arthur River (and Gardiner Point). The west coast is very rugged and the views are stunning. Back then to Smithton and did a couple of inland trips through Scotchtown, Irishtown, Edith Creek, Roger River and down to the South Arthur Forest. Also went to Dip Falls and The Big Tree. The Big Tree is 62 mtrs high and has a girth around the base of 16 mtrs - a HUGE tree.
Back to Burnie and headed south through the mountains to Cradle Mountain. Did the 6.5km walk around Dove Lake and the Enchanted Garden Walk. On
to Mackintosh Dam, Rosebery, Zeehan and into Strahan. Everything you've heard about Strahan is true - just beautiful. It sits in Macquarie Harbour - which is twice the size of Sydney Harbour and the 2nd largest Harbour in Australia. Only Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne) is bigger. Like Port Phillip, the entrance to this huge harbour is quite narrow - called Hell's Gates. Inside the harbour is Sarah Island which was a penal colony in the 1800's and had a reputation of being extremely harsh. At the other end of the harbour are a few rivers - one of which is the famous Gordon River. (Some of you may remember the Franklin-below-Gordon 'greenie' controversy in the 1970's).
We took a cruise on a ship called The Eagle around the harbour, through the heads, a tour of Sarah Is and back down into the Gordon River. The ship is only 14 mths old and was just great. Beautifully decked out, the Captain's commentary was excellent and lunch was quite delicious. It included some wonderful Tassie smoked salmon and Tassie cheeses. The cruise went for about 5 hours and I would call it EXCELLENT value for money. Next day we took a
coach to Queenstown and came back to Strahan by rail. The first half of the train trip is in an original old steam train - first used by loggers etc over 100 yrs ago. The railway fell into terrible disrepair and was closed in the 60's but has been resurrected as a tourist attraction now. It's called The Wilderness Railway and travels through endless rainforest back to Strahan. Halfway back the engine is changed to a diesel engine. This also included lunch (though not as sumptuous as the cruise) and, again, great value for money. The whole thing took about 5 hours also. The Queen River (which runs into the King River, which runs into the harbour) is extremely polluted. For over 100 yrs, the tailings from the copper mines around Queenstown were just dumped into the river!!! The surrounding landscape has also been devastated by mining operations and almost completely denuded of vegetation. I found Queenstown to be quite yucky and had no wish to spend any time there later on.
From Strahan, back up the mountain and headed east. Visited Nelson Falls - just spectacular, the Franklin River and on to Lake St Clair near Derwent Bridge.
Visited "The Wall In The Wilderness" - a most incredible display. This guy makes art out of wood. That sounds very ho-hum but he is fantastic!! The first thing I looked at was a pair of gloives sitting on a table and I wondered what a pair of dirty old leather gloves had to do with woodwork??? They're carved out of wood - you'd swear you were looking at a pair of leather gloves!! He has a dryzabone and an old hat hanging on a hatstand - carved in wood!!! He has a HUGE (work in progress) of various rural scenes done in panels that are about 20' high and 4' wide - just incredible. On to Canoein, Tarraleah Power Station, Ellendale, Westerway and into the Land Of The Giants caravan park. What a name - how intriguing!!! This is where the TALLEST 'flowering' trees IN THE WORLD are found. Only the Californian Redwoods are taller - but they don't 'flower' - they have cones. These are Swamp Gums and I cannot begin to explain how insignificant you feel standing beneath one. The tallest (known) is 79mtrs !!!!! There was one at 98mtrs but it fell over in 1995. They
are slow-growing (though nowhere near as slow as the magnificent Huon Pines of Tasmania), so at 79mtrs it could well be over 400 yrs old. Also visited Russell Falls here - though not as spectacular as Nelson Falls - still very much worth the walk.
Did a day-trip west to Strathgordon and the Gordon Dam. The Gordon Dam is the biggest dam in Tassie and the power generated there supplies 16% of the total grid in Tassie. The dam stands 78 mtrs high, is 195 mtrs long, 17 mtrs thick at the base and took 154,000 cubic mtrs of concrete to build !!!!! Along the way there we came across 'The Creepy Crawly Walk' and ventured in. Quite different scenery and inside to most of the other rainforests we've seen - very forgotten, fairy-like, fragile. The walkway through here is built around, under, over the vegetation - quite 'different'.
Back to Westerway and south-east through a place called Bushy Park, where we purchased even bigger cherries !!!!! Honestly, they're the size of the top of your big toe !!!! We also noticed a crop here we'd never seen before. Kind of like a a creeper with one central
stem climbing up a string attached to an overhead wire - acres & acres of it....... HOPS!!! Across ro Rosegarland and north to Hamilton and on to Bothwell. For all you golfing enthusiasts - Bothwell is the birthplace of golf in Australia and there is Golf Museum here too. Bothwell was settled by Scots people in the early 1800's and there are over 50 heritage-listed buildings here - some dating back as early as 1834!!!!
So that's where we are tonight as I write this update. Tomorrow we're moving back southwards to New Norfolk and then into Hobart and all points south...................... See you all later. Hope everyone is well.
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