Strahan......... 16th March

Today we woke up to a beautiful morning but very cool but fortunately the day warmed up, but still not like the weather we left behind re the heat. But still very comfortable.

Last night we booked the boat cruise (red boat) to do the harbour and Gordon River cruise. It was excellent and took six hours. Lots of history, great buffet lunch very good friendly  staff. First we went out to the entrance of the  Macquarie Harbour.  Then a guided tour of Sarah Island, where  the prison was for all the convicts between 1822 and 1833. Then finally up the Gordon River as far as the big boats are allowed to go, had our lunch on the way, then we tied up at a wharf to have a walk through the rain forest. Great day although it clouded over as you will see, as we started to go up the river.

Today I had to take my photos on the iPad as the photos are still not transferring over from the phone. A real nuisance as I don't want to carry my iPad around to take photos for the rest of the trip. 🤔

 

This is the Red Boat Company  we went on for our cruise. We left at 9.00am and returned at 3pm.

View from the top deck before we took off.

Looking from the back forward. We were siting in the third row from the front on the centre left, top floor.(Two seats). They have three classes.  Blue where you share an eight seater table, on the bottom floor in the centre, next class up red seats two on their own either bottom floor around the sides, windows seats and then the top class gold seats upstairs around the windows. With some red seats in the middle where we sat.

Standing up front looking back. We were three rows from the front. Much better on the top floor less people. Very comfortable with pull down tables like an aeroplane.

 

We are off, heading out to the entrance of the Macquarie Harbour. What a great morning. The captain had just announced that the weather is so perfect, (which doesn't often happen in these parts) that we were going out past the entrance of the Harbour into the ocean waters. A lot further than they can usually go. A bit of a big swell but awesome.

On the way PT was playing Captain. The guy on the left is the Captain and he also did all the commentary for the tour and did it extremely well. Made it all very interesting. 

I should add that the boat is 2 years old, built in Hobart at a cost of $7.3m. It has 4x 800 hp motors. PT.

Still heading for the harbour entrance.

 

Nearly into the open waters.

The Macquarie Harbour is the 2nd biggest harbour in Australia. Even larger than Sydney Harbour.

 

Getting closer

Didn't really get a photo on the iPad when we were as far as we went, too busy looking. Only got it on my phone which as I mention isn't transferring over. As I am now doing my blog on an app I need all my photos on there to upload to the blog.

Now on our way back looking out the stern back to the narrowest entrance to the harbour where the boats have to come in. 'Tis called Devils Channel.

Now on our way back into the harbour heading for Sarah Island where we landed for a guided tour around the Island. Sarah Island was a convict Penal Settlement between 1822 and 1833, officially the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement. Although about 200 prisoners, men and women, were sent to the Settlement for offences committed while under sentence. There are a few obvious ruins on the Island, timber structures have rotted, vandalism, and souvenir hunters have depleted brick and stone structures. Yet the ruins tell the story.

Past the salmon farms. Salmon are held in these big holding pens. The boat is spraying out the food for the Salmon but the birds are trying their best to get some too.

We have now arrived at Sarah Island. We had a very good guide to show us around giving us all the history. Very interesting.

Standing on the Island looking back to the mainland.

The remains of The  Commandants Quarters. All that is left is the fallen chimneys 

Remains of the goal. Their cells were only about 1m x 2m's and 2m's high. Can you imagine being locked up in such a small area.

 This was a three story building, the sleeping quarters for about sixty men. The entrance was at second floor level so they went down to lower floor and up to top floor. What a squash!!!

Now onto better things this is our buffet lunch on board. As we left the Island we started to head  to the entrance of the Gordon River and the captain reduced speed,but kept moving while we ate our lunch, yum, we could have as much as we liked. The Captain kept saying there is plenty more. Lovely fresh local salmon.

There was also lots of different salads on the right.

Heading for the entrance of the Gordon  river. Now started to cloud over.

Nice reflections

Really clouded over now looking quite dark.

Reflections. I got a good photo on my phone of a yacht mooring under the trees. The reflections were so go it reflected the whole boat hull and mast upside down. Hopefully I can post it sometime later.

We saw a few of pleasure yachts up and down the river.

The boat was tied up at a jetty up river to let us off to go on a broad walk through the rain forest.  Really like we see at home. Could have been NZ like a lot of Tassie. Inland more the one thing you know you are in OZ is all the gum trees.



Board walk through the rain forest.

We had a fun day so informative, very comfortable,  and we're lucky we got the best part of the day and some rain come over as we approached Strahan. We covered 130km in the boat on the cruise. Went back to unit for a coffee and we got some rain but as the evening came it all cleared away. We are off to Cradle Mountain National park tomorrow so here's hoping we get a nice day up there, hoping to walk around Dove lake and it would be nice to have  a clear day to see the mountain. 🤞