Macquarie Heads, Tasmania

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12 - 14 January 2011

This little section of the Tasmania trip was fantastic and a highlight for us all. Macquarie Heads is a 12km dirt road drive from Stahan on the west coast. Stahan is a gorgeous little port town with a huge harbour with lost of history. We visted the timber mill which was full of Huon Pine and beautiful carvings. Huon Pine is no longer logged by law in Tasmania but there is still enough supply from the logging days and also from loose branches and trees that are found floating down the rivers. They call huon pine "the oldest living Tasmanian as it has been around for millions of years.

From Strahan we took a Gordon River Cruise which was amazing. It took us out past the heads and into the Indian Ocean and then cruised down the Gordon River where it stopped and we were able to walk through ancient rainforest. What a magical place! It also stopped at Sarah Island but at that stage the rain was pretty much horizontal from the wind so Oscar and I stayed on the cruise while Alex and Reef (and most of the other passengers) braved the weather and went for the guided tour. The guided tour was really good and the tour acted it out like a play and got everyone involved as characters from the convict days.

We couldn't miss the old English lolly shop in Strahan where the boys were so excited to get their own bag and fill it up with goodies. Alex was even more excited!

We also walked to Hogarth Falls near the town centre and did some beach driving back at Macquarie Heads. The caretaker at the campground was an interesting creature (hmmm) and we had a good laugh one day when Alex went to pay him some more money as we were staying longer than first intended. Alex tried making some small talk "hi mate, how you going?" - no response. "Gee it's hot isn't it?" - no response. "How's the fishing around here?" - well that was it. The old man threw down his chainsaw and let rip. "What's with all the f#@kin questions? How the f#@k would I know how hot it is? I've been on the chainsaw all morning". Well it doesn't always pay to be nice to people!! He ended up apologising to Alex and saying that he's a bit grumpy in the mornings - a bit grumpy??? Christ, I'd hate to see him a lot grumpy!!!... We had a good laugh over it though.

The marshmellow puffs that we toasted every night deserve a mention too. Awww they were HUGE! And yummm.

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