This morning Laura and Elena caught up on homework and their independent projects and I wrote the blog entry for yesterday. At 11am, we caught up with the Ellises and walked downtown. All the businesses are on a 3- or 4-block stretch along the waterfront. Strahan only has 500 people so it doesn’t take long to walk from one end to the other. Even so, it is the tourism hub for the west coast of Tasmania and as such can be quite busy in the summer. It is located on the Macquarie Harbour, a body of water six times the size of Sydney Harbour (in American English, we’d call it a bay, not a harbor).
Our first stop was Tasmanian Special Timbers, a sawmill specializing in salvaged and stockpiled timber, including huon pine, blackwood and sassafras. We bought several huon pine burls to take home and got four offcut rounds for free. They also had things like bread and cheese boards made of a variety of woods as well as larger items such as coffee-table tops. It was a great way to get a close-up look at how the famed huon pines are processed.
We then walked along the waterfront to a park and were going to continue on to a waterfall but decided against it since it was starting to rain. Instead, we turned around and walked back into town to have lunch at a bakery. By the time we got our sandwiches and sat down outside, the weather had done a complete turnaround and the sun was coming out. We took our sweet time eating our scrolls (like cinnamon rolls, except these were filled with apples) and scones, and then lazed about languidly under our sun umbrella until it was time to board our boat for the Gordon River cruise. By then (2:30 pm), the sun and blue sky were gone and it was gray again.
Our boat, the Lady Jane Franklin II, is a high-tech catamaran design, 32 m (105 ft) long and 9.5 m (31 ft) wide, with a staff of 30 and a crew of 7. It can carry 212 passengers and goes up to 60 km/h (38 mph). We had four window seats for the kids and four seats in the middle for the adults, but since the windows are floor-to-ceiling and the center seats are raised, everybody had a fantastic view.
After a quick cup of coffee, I headed for the upper deck that extends about half the length of the boat and affords 360° views. Darting back and forth between bow and stern, I tried to take in all the vistas at once. The endlessly changing interplay of sky, water and light was amazing.
When we left Strahan, the sky was an almost solid gray, but within 20 minutes, the cloud cover broke up and revealed patches of blue sky and puffy white clouds. One of my favorite views was the wake of the boat against the dramatic clouds above it.
The first leg of our cruise was from Strahan to Hells Gate, the treacherous 80 m (264 ft) wide entrance to the harbor from the Southern Ocean. Standing at the bow looking out toward Hells Gate was an exhilarating experience. When the boat was going at full speed, the wind was so strong that I had a hard time even turning around. If I hadn’t had the hood of my sweatshirt tied tightly around my head, I’m sure the wind would have ripped my sunglasses right off.
Approaching Hells Gate, we passed two small islands with lighthouses. Looking west past the harbor opening, there’s nothing but open sea between here and South America, some 6,000 miles to the east. It’s almost impossible for me to wrap my mind around this notion.
Right at Hells Gate the boat turned around and started to head inland toward the Gordon River. Braving a squall of rain or two, we passed a number of fish farms that raise rainbow and brook trout, Atlantic salmon and other fish. The superb smoked salmon we later had for dinner came from one of these farms.
About 1 1/2 hours into our cruise, we entered the Gordon River proper. On both sides of the river, the vegetation reaches all the way down to the water. The water is a rich brown from the tannins that leach from the roots of the huon pines growing right along the water and often into it.
A little higher up, celery-top pines, sassafras, myrtles, ironwood and leatherwood trees (currently in bloom) create a mixed forest. Particularly steep sections where landslides had occurred have been taken over by Tasmanian tree ferns.
What is particularly striking is the total lack of human presence. There are no roads, no power lines, no dwellings of any kind. You are surrounded by pristine nature, undisturbed and primordial.
14 km (9 miles) upriver we stopped at Heritage Landing just inside Franklin—Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. A boardwalk leads through an unadulterated section of temperate rainforest, densely overgrown with lush vegetation. Moss and ferns are everywhere, and the air is cool and moist.
Huon pines grow from fallen logs more than a thousand years old, at a glacial rate of 3 mm (0.1 inch) a year. Spindly specimens are 50+ years old while others currently 1 ft thick are 500+ years old. The cutting of huon pines is now illegal; only naturally fallen trees can be salvaged. There are enough fallen trees along the Gordon River to last for another 100 years at the current rate of salvage. After that, huon pines will be very hard to come by. As it is, articles made of huon pines—ranging from small items like cutting boards and pepper shakers to larger pieces like coffee-table tops and abstract sculptures—are already quite expensive, and prices are expected to skyrocket over the years to come. Our tour guide called huon pine timber “wooden gold”.
After our rainforest excursion, we turned around and headed back downriver toward Macquarie Harbour. Fairly soon we were invited to come to the dinner buffet, well-stocked with a variety of salads and my personal favorite, local smoked salmon. The salmon was so good that I went back for seconds. Katrina bought a bottle of Tasmanian sauvignon blanc (2008 42 Degrees South) that was really nice.
Not long after dinner we docked at Sarah Island, the infamous prison island that was notorious for its unrelenting use of punishment for even the smallest infractions. Founded in 1822 (predating the Port Arthur penal colony southeast of Hobart), it soon gained a reputation for being hell on earth.
Here is a list of offences committed by prisoners in 1830, and the attendant punishment:
- Leaving his work and going into the garden and stealing parsley: 10 days of solitary confinement [see photo above of cell house ruins]
- Stating to the sentry at the lumber yard that he did not give a damn for him or anyone: one month in irons
- Having fish hooks in his possession and leaving his gang to go fishing: 25 lashes
- Absconding into the woods and taking with him an axe: 150 lashes and irons
The punishment for more serious offences was even more drastic—execution for attempting to escape, for example. Today only a few modest ruins remind visitors of the island’s terrible past.
Everybody else in our group was doing the guided tour of the island but I peeled off and struck out on my own. I took a few pictures of the ruins but my main focus were the island’s natural attractions.
I took a beautiful abstract of teatree trunks ghostly white against the dark background and, just minutes before I had to be back at the boat, some ethereal images of tree fern fronds against the white sky. I’m in love with these images; they’re among my favorites of our trip so far.
The return trip to Strahan from Sarah Island took about 45 minutes and the weather got ever more brooding, with occasional downpours hitting the boat. Everybody had a big smile on their face as we debarked. For me, this cruise was the high point of our Australia trip thus far, and the sights we saw will remain with me for a long time to come.
The walk up the steep hill from the dock to our cabins took only 15 minutes but none of us could wait to kick off our shoes, have a glass of wine and then head off to bed, which is what I’m about to do.
PS: Still no Internet connection, so posting this entry, and all the others from Tasmania, has to wait. Tomorrow we’re leaving for Cradle Mountain. I’m hoping our place in Sheffield will have Internet access, otherwise I’ll post all Tasmania entries from Sydney on Friday evening.
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