Tasmania | trains, boats, forests and a ship that never was
Tuesday was a rest day , we got up late and made our way to the heritage train station over the other side of Strahan bay, we had missed the train ride (only o e a day and leaves at 10am) but did have a nice all be it late breakfast. A Quick Look around then into the main esplanades where we picked up our tickets for the Gordon River Cruise and had a mooch around the shops heading back to the hotel and in particular the laundromat.
Washing on we made our way to a semi outdoor theatre for the funny and enchanting two person play “the ship that never was” I say two man in truth about half the audience was roped in including both myself and Deb. It was half farce and half history lesson but a great way to pass off a few hours.
The play dealt with an audacious escape plan conducted by a bunch of criminals housed on the penal colony on Sarah Island, a place we would be visiting on our cruise.
We grabbed a take away and an early night ready for our river cruise the next day.
Up early and a coffee from the coffee shop across from the ferry and before we realised we were heading out of the harbour on the very modern Harbour master 2 catamaran belonging to heritage cruises one of the two cruise companies operating on the Macquarie Harbour and Gordon River, I chose these as they were a family company that have been working on the river for generations, I always go for the underdog against the corporate guys.
The catamaran shifted at quite a speed to the Hells Gates, which is the name of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour . It is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel entrance to the harbour. It was also the channel the convicts that were housed on Sarah island.
Our next stop was the island and it has a fascinating history brought alive by the most excellent guide (and the daughter of the writings of the play we had seen the night before. For more info on Sarah island and the convicts who built boats click here.
After a Quick Look at the fish farms in the harbour we headed down the Gordon River towards heritage landing for a 40 min stroll through the rainforest with again a young man from the ship who again provided and an informative and engaging commentary.
Before this we had an excellent lunch on the ship. Indeed the tour was ex and the captain and crew friendly and professional. If ever you come this way I would highly recommend doing this.
The six hours of the cruise went very quickly and we found ourselves back at Strahan harbour, tired, slightly damp but happy.
