Sunday, January 01, 2012

Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 - Day 12

Good start to the day. A hearty breakfast to attempt to finish off all of the food that Loic had prepared for us. Left at about 9:30 am for our five hour drive to Strahan and the first turn I took, on the Southern Outer, was the wrong way. Soon corrected that. Drove into Hobart looking for directions to Bridgewater or Glenorchy. Managed to head the correct way and we were on our way.

As we didn't get caught behind log trucks we made good time. In the Gordon-Franklin National Park we stopped at the Nelson Falls and walked to the 35m high falls. Pretty impressive, as were the snow covered peaks in the area. Not a great deal of traffic in the area but plenty of narrow and windy roads. It brought out the rally driver in me - albeit in a Hyundai Getz 3-door.

The entrance to Queenstown was like a moonscape and certainly not what I'd come to expect in Tasmania. Got caught behind a truck for about 2km from within Queenstown but luckily he wasn't headed down my turn off to Strahan. Managed the drive, not including the waterfall stop, in four hours for just over 300 km.

Strahan is situated on the Gordon River. Considering that the population is only 637 there seems to be accommodation for thousands. It's just that our accommodation was pretty difficult to find and it is a case of what I was anticipating to be the easiest to locate was, in fact, the most trying. Irony, eh? Stopped in town for a bit to eat and found that all of the specials had sold out at the bakery/cafe. After locating our accommodation, pretty much by accident as it isn't well sign-posted, we had a snack and a couple of games of pool before I decided that we should see a play entitled "The Ship That Never Was" by The Round Earth Company. The Boy took some convincing to come along. I was annoyed to find that the entry fee had increased, in relation to the pamphlet that I'd read, but for children under 13 it was a gold coin donation and so was actually cheaper that I had planned for.

The pantomime was great and The Boy and I both got to play parts. Talk about a good laugh and an interesting story to boot. The Boy enjoyed it far more than he had expected to. If you are in town you can't afford to miss it.

Walked into town and up to View 42° restaurant and bar for a pizza and drinks. Nice. On the way back to the YHA we stopped by the supermarket to pick up some breakfast but it was already close. Only open till 7 pm and not 12 am like Hobart and Launceston. Shower and bed.


Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 Photo Album No.2 - Photos 201-238.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow you have had so many nice trips. Nice photos. Josh

Hammy said...

Gotta make the most of it when you take the time and spend the money for a trip. Plenty of photos that fell on the cutting room floor though.