Day 31: 3/10/12 Day 3 Tasmania
I forgot to say yesterday that the hostel is like a camp site. The room is grand. But you have to go outside for the toilets. There are only three female toilets and showers. I was up in plenty of time to make sure I got one of them! Thankfully I didn't need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night- that would have been fun!
This morning there was an optional cruise that I picked to do. If you didn't do it I think the driver was going to bring you to a few beaches. The cruise sounded more fun- $90 more!
We went to Strahan village (pronounced Strawn) to get the boat. It's tiny! There are only 800 people here. Fishing is the main industry. They used to ship minerals from her but now they are exported by road or rail.
The boat is a catamaran. It has a world record for the amount of water skiers pulled- 145 skiers!
The water has the brown colour from the button grass and lots of white foamy streaks. Macquarie harbour is the second largest harbour in Australia and is twice as big as Sydney harbour.
The prisoners came here when they were sent to Tasmania. It is at 42 degrees latitude- in the roaring forties! It was really bumpy and windy- I thought my camera and hat were gonners! To get into the harbour you have to go through a narrow channel only 50m wide. The prisoners called it Hells Gates as they felt they were being sent to hell. It's also hell for mariners as it is hard to navigate big ships through it. We drove through, turned and came back through again. If we had kept going out at sea, to the right, we would pass under Africa and land in Argentina!
There were a few houses here that are holiday homes and have to be accessed by boat. Crayfishing it seems is a big pastime here.
There are lots of fish farms around. The harbour has lots of fresh water from the rivers and as a result of Hells gates. They have trout and Atlantic salmon. The salmon was introduced from Canada. You could see the cage type thigs of the fish farms. Apparently in one cage there could be 30,000 trout. We saw a boat with fishermen taking the fish out of the cage. You could see the fish jumping around and he fishermen loading it into a net and onto the boat. There were lots of nets around-they must get a lotta lotta fish!
Then we stopped in Sarah Island. This was the first prison that they had in Tasmania- from 1822 to 1833. It was built before port arthur. Convicts reclaimed parts of the land, built structures and ships. It was supposed to be the worst place a convict could be sent but there are a few mysteries around this. The solitary confinement cells were rarely used. The convicts ran a black market and were able to buy tea, rum, etc for trade. They tried to overturn the commander several times, lots of people tried to escape, there were murders- a very interesting place!! The military and governors were often corrupt- one was sent off the island for being too obvious about his readings with convicts- he ended up being elected Tasmanias first premier (prime minister). At one stage they wanted to get rid of the drunken doctor so they got one of the convicts to streak in front of the doctors wife and family and they were off within the week! The punishment was lashings- the number of which depended on your miademeanour. There was also Grummett rock- a tiny island off the shore- that the most distrusted workers were sent. Another little island off the shore was where people were buried. One guy escaped and promised to come back for the rest of the convicts but one of his crew dobbed him in and he was hung. The last people left on the island didn't want to go to port Arthur so they stole the last ship they built and escape all the way to Chile. To find out how they get on we have to watch a play later on today! There are lots of interesting stories of the people sent there and people working there. I'll have to do some reading!
Then we entered the Gordon river and had lunch. They had a big spread of lovely salads and fresh smoked salmon. We didn't miss too much while eating. There were trees (a temperate rainforest) all along the banks of the river. It was quite pretty and picturesque- just green trees everywhere- nothing else to be seen! We pulled up then at heritage landing and walked around a trail in the rainforest showing us some of the trees. I saw a sassafras tree- I don't know where I've heard that word, but I've heard it before! The most important tree is the Huon pine, some of them are 3000 years old and are they are unique to Tasmania. They were used for building ships and the wood is very buoyant, although the oil you can get from it sinks in water- the only oil to do so. The had a cross section of a part of a tree trunk that was 650 years old. It only grows about 1mm each year and you could see the tiny little lines!
Back on the boat again then! I took some time wandering around- front deck, back deck, upper deck, wheelhouse. I don't know why they call it that as there was no wheel. The captain just had a joystick and a computer screen in front of him- very technical! I got some nice photos of the river going through the rainforest, but it was quite windy so I look terrible in them- hair all over the place and squinty eyes!
We sailed in the Macquarie harbour then back to Strahan. We got off at a sawmills where they were showing you how they cut the Huon pine. They had trees, wood that was just cut and then real polished wood for sale- salt and pepper cellars, cheeseboards, wooden rocking horses and the likes. Huon pine wood is expensive- its 7 times the price of any other wood in Australia.
The guide met us there then and drove us out to Ocean Beach. It was very impressive- there were big massive waves flowing into the beach, leaving lots of foam. The beach was sandy but had lots of shiny rocks that I know Dad would be picking up and bringing home! The sand had light and dark colours mixed together which looked cool. The wind and waves were really strong as apparently theres no land between here and Argentina. Apparently the beach stretches for 30km and people have been known to drive their cars along it- that's one for you Shell!
We were dropped back at the hostel then for about an hour. That gave me enough time to check up on everyone on the Internet! We are going to the play soon and I won't have Internet after that (only available for 24h in one room) so I'll upload this now and fill in the details about the play and anything after that tomorrow! That's if I have wifi- they don't seem to be that hitech here. I have no phone reception anywhere!

So the play was good. It was more like a pantomime than a play! They pulled people out of the audience to do various things! There were guys that had to shoot muskets, guys that had to tread imaginary water, there were squawking parrots! It was very funny- real British humour! I was picked to pump water on the ship in a nice yellow macintosh! Very becoming! The people that were captured after the escape anyway seem to get away without being hanged! The boat hadn't been registered so they couldn't be accused of stealing a ship if there was no ship- ie The Ship That Never Was!
After the play we went back to the hostel. There were no plans for dinner or anything so luckily I had a few rice cakes to eat! I sat in the kitchen for a while chatting to the Israeli and the Dutch women. They were funny although I've never heard anyone complain as much as the Israeli! She's not happy with the tour or the guide at all! One of the other things she was giving out about was the Israeli government who she said mess everything up- perhaps governments are the same everywhere!!