2004/03 Tasmania loop - Zeehan and Strahan |
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We drove south to Zeehan, a town with a pretty main street and a large 
museum of steam locomotives and massive mining machinery. The museum was about to close for the day and we ended up in a combined café and rock shop. Where else could you order two cappuccinos and a piece of crocoite?
Our destination was Strahan on Macquarie Harbour. After our days out in the country, Strahan seemed very busy and crowded, and the campgrounds in town looked to be packed solid. So, instead, we headed out on the road to Macquarie Heads, where there’s a more informal campground. The caretaker said “Well, if you can find a spot that isn’t underwater come back and pay me in the morning.” With its 
ancient decaying caravans it looks more like a shanty town than a campground, but we followed a sand track out through the dunes until we hit the beach and then camped behind the front line of dunes. We could see a lighthouse through a notch in the dunes, so we had free lighting every 75 seconds or so.
Tuesday March 16th
The lighthouse is there to mark the very narrow channel between the harbour and the sea. Although the channel had been quiet when we camped, I actually heard the tide change in the middle of the night. By dawn the water was roaring through the channel as the whole harbour tried to empty into the sea. Although it’s a magnificent natural harbour it would sometimes take days for sailing ships to brave the enormous waves and the roaring tides and get into the harbour.
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Strahan Beach (8.19) |
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After watching a golden sunrise, I ran along the river to the second 
lighthouse and the ocean beach. I was the only person in sight until a 
couple of powered catamarans came through the channel. These were tour boats, coming out to see the lighthouses and the harbour entrance before visiting the old prison on Sarah’s Island and the huon pines on the Gordon River. We took one of them on our last visit to Strahan. Our guide had actually donned a wet suit and jumped into the water to show us the ruins of the pier. That was a good trip.
When Sandie and I walked the same route later there were fishermen doing 
very well in the channel, and 4-wheel drive trucks doing the loop from Macquarie Heads to the Ocean Beach Road. There was even one guy fishing from his truck and demonstrating Canute-like powers over the incoming tide.
We drove back to Strahan, taking time for a walk under the tree ferns. We had an expensive stop at the Strahan Woodworks, where they produce bowls, ornaments, and even boats out of the unique Tasmanian woods, like sassafras, huon pine, myrtle (beech), blackwood, and various eucalypts. We got most of our presents there: bowls, shakers, and a clock, and arranged for them to be shipped back to US rather than trying to bring them back as yet more carryon baggage.