Friday, February 14, 2025

Last night was a horrible night of sleep in Queenstown, Tasmania. The smoke in the air from bushfires burning to the north was so thick that we could smell and taste it. Everything smelled of smoke— our hair, clothing, and the blankets on our beds. Fortunately, it started to rain around 3:00am and rain was predicted on and off throughout the day. The sky wasn’t quite as orange-colored this morning, thank goodness.

I woke up at 3:00am with a pounding headache and couldn’t fall back asleep. I blogged until 6:00am and then Andi and I both got up to prepare the RV to leave for Strahan, Tasmania about 45 minutes away. Today, Andi booked us tickets on a Gordon River Scenic Cruise. This cruise is the reason we came to this area of the west; we’ve had our tickets booked for months. This tour is touted as the top “must do” activity when visiting Tasmania. Boarding time on the Gordon River cruise began at 8:00am.

The roadway from Queenstown to Strahan twisted through the rugged wilderness. We saw several helicopters and make-shift tent stations for firefighting set up along the way.

Around 8:00am, we boarded the Spirit of the Wild. Today’s six-hour river cruise took us into a remote area of Tasmania’s pristine wilderness. We had assigned seats on the ship. Andi picked the 2nd-tier package with comfortable window seating. There was also a higher-tiered premium seating lounge on the top deck of the ship, as well as a 3rd-tier of middle seating on the main floor (no direct window view).

As the Spirit of the Wild pulled away from shore, we probably should have gone to the top deck to watch the view of Macquarie Harbour, but all I could think about at the moment was my headache. Andi was asleep in his chair the minute we left port.

The four of us did eventually go up to the top deck to see Hell’s Gates, the nickname for the mouth of Macquarie Harbour. This narrow channel can be difficult to navigate, and has caused many shipwrecks over the years. Convicts sentences to life at the penal colony, Sarah Island, might have also deemed the entrance as their passage into “hell on earth.”

Our boat passed through Hell’s Gates and continued into the Southern Ocean for a look & feel of the rough seas. We stayed there a short time before turning around and re-entering through the mouth of the harbour.

From the harbour, we continued along the Gordon River. It was helpful to look at a map to see where we were exactly. We were in a very remote area of Tasmania, only accessible by boat. Wilderness surrounded us on every side.

Once the boat entered the river channel, the captain turned off the engines. We glided peacefully through the water using hydro-electric motors as not to erode the riverbanks with excessive waves and also so passengers could hear the unique sounds of nature.

The cruise boat stopped at Heritage Landing for a group walk through the rainforest. We followed the cluster of people along the boardwalk for a little while, and then broke away and did our own exploring. Honestly, this forest didn’t look any different than the ones we’ve been hiking through the past couple days, but supposedly there are ancient trees here which have been carbon-dated back thirty thousand years.

Back on the ship, lunch was served. It was a nice spread of ham and salmon cold cuts, chicken drumsticks, a variety of cold salads, and dinner rolls. Not much of a selection for kids though. Our seats were chosen to pass through the buffet line first which was a nice treat. When Tory and Aden returned to our seats, they each had one chicken drumstick and a dinner roll on their plates. “You might want to eat more than that,” Andi suggested. “This is all the food we have for a while.”

The kids waited until all the other passengers had a chance to go through the line, and then went up to the buffet line a second time. Aden returned with a heaping plate of drumsticks. Tory had two dinner rolls this time.

The boat continued to cruise along the Gordon River through lunch. Shortly afterwards, we arrived at Sarah Island which was one of Australia’s 11 convict islands during the 1800s.

We decided to follow the tour guide so we could hear the stories behind the ruins. Our guide was one of the actors from the long-running play, “The Ship That Never Was” which is performed nightly in Strahan. He was very animated and made the stories of Sarah Island come alive.

The convict settlement of Sarah Island is nowhere near as well-preserved as Port Arthur Historic Site. I was glad we’d gone to Port Arthur first so we knew what to expect before visiting here. Our guide did a good job telling stories helping us to imagine what life amongst these ruined buildings may have been like.

Sarah Island was reserved for the worst-of-the-worst criminals. Criminals from Britain and Ireland were sent to Port Arthur to serve out their prison sentences, and those that continued to cause trouble were sent to Sarah Island.

I read that 20% of Australians are descendants of these convicts. Others descended from military and staff who worked on the islands during the Convict Era.

The Gordon River Cruise concluded around 3:00pm, delivering us back to the port in Strahan. Andi booked us a campsite for tonight at Strahan Beach Holiday Park. Thanks to the rain, most of the smoke had cleared from the air. I was glad we could stay in the area another night as planned, and not have to drive elsewhere tonight to avoid it.

All four of us took turns taking showers in the holiday park facilities. Then, Andi prepared a pork loin for dinner in the community camp kitchen. He said several people in the kitchen were drooling over his roasted pork crackling — apparently a favorite meal among Australians.

Pretty impressive campground meal!

After we ate dinner, Andi and I still had a lot of steps to catch up on to get to 10,000 today. Ugh. I didn’t want to, but he pushed me to go for a walk into town with him. There was a nice walking trail which followed the water into town, and quite a hubbub of people dining in a handful of restaurants. Someone recognized us from yesterday’s hike around Cradle Mountain’s Dove Lake and stopped us on the sidewalk to chat travel itineraries. It is funny that we’ve seen the same people in several places who are also making a loop around Tasmania.