Thursday
Despite really wanting a lie in we knew we couldn't. We had to have our first shower since Monday morning before taking the surprising amount of stuff we had in the room for less than a day, back out to the car. We did have time for a coffee before we checked out though. We'd had a look in our Lonely Planet book for Tasmania and found there was a recommended breakfast café located on the road next to us. We had seen it the day before and had our hearts set on it. We checked out and drove the 30 seconds up the road to get to it. Moby Dick’s wouldn't have looked out of place in a western movie, with its overhanging roof it looked like a saloon bar. After humming and hahring whether to sit outside, the strong winds eventually put us off and we found a seat inside instead. We both went for the Bushman’s breakfast, which was pretty much a full English with some potato slices and lacking baked beans. Together with a coffee it went down a treat and we could see why it was mentioned in our book (although, with it being one of the only breakfast places in Stanley, maybe it was a foregone conclusion). On our way out of town we drove up to a place called highfield, which was a high field with a view back into the village with the Nut in the background. On our way back down we noticed a road sign with a picture of a penguin on it which we had to get a photo of, so Charlotte pulled over and I popped out quickly. We had a think about it and came to the conclusion that it was probably the only place in the world that has a road sign warning about penguins potentially crossing the road. Our last quick stop in Stanley was at the tourist information centre. The one in Penguin had been such a success we thought we had better swing by. We were partly after a pin badge (but not getting our hopes up), part after a stubby holder to keep Charlotte's jar of jam cold and part after some internet to find some accommodation for the following night. There were no stubby holders but they did have a pin badge so we picked one up each. We also managed to find a room in the town of Strahan for Friday evening and the lady behind the counter even let us use her phone to book it. With all that sorted we hit the road back towards Burnie but turning right before we got there. Our destination was Cradle Mountain, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Tasmania and located within the Cradle Mountain-Lake St.Claire National Park. It took us a couple of hours to drive there, making a quick stop to top up with petrol that is eye wateringly cheap compared to the UK and at a place called Black Bluff, which is a viewing point that normally has views of Cradle Mountain but unfortunately, due to low cloud, we couldn't see it.
We pulled up at our accommodation for the night and could see that it had been raining quite a bit during the day. Our room was a family cabin with a double bed and a bunk bed in a block of 6 that was completely deserted when we arrived. We made ourselves some lunch in the large kitchen, eyeing up the huge amount of food that had been left on the table, which we assumed was for a tour group. We helped ourselves to a hot chocolate each which may have been theirs but I'm not sure they missed 2 sachets. During our late lunch it started raining again so we hit any plans of going into the park on the head there and then and walked to the visitor centre instead which was just across the road from our campsite. Compared to Stanley or Penguin’s it was huge and again, we managed to pick up a pin badge. We also eyed up a number of the walks available within the park, as an idea of which one to do the following morning. We picked out a couple, leaving the final decision to when we saw the weather the next morning. We walked back to our warm and cosy cabin and dried ourselves off using the heater. I passed the evening with a bit of blog writing while Charlotte entertained herself with a sudoku or 2. We could hear that a large group of people had moved into the kitchen and guessed that they were the owners of the mountain of food. We left it as long as we could before heading in to cook our dinner as we could hear it was busy. There wasn't any room at any of the 3 tables when we got in but they were just washing up and some did become available. We had tuna, pasta and sweetcorn while a the remainder of the tour group struggled noisily through a game of cards. We went to bed early as we had nothing to really do and were both tired from some long days.
Friday
We didn't even have to get out of bed to know what the weather was doing outside. It had been pouring all night and we knew this because the sound of it on the roof kept waking us up. We were faced with a dilemma. Do we go in the national park and get absolutely sodden doing a walk and then face a long drive to Strahan to get there in time for something we had planned at 5 o'clock or do we set off early and do a walk we had found and hope the weather is better there and then have a shorter trip to Strahan? We mulled it over breakfast while we received glares from the group who were taking up the entire kitchen once again. From overhearing conversation, we guessed that they were actually students of some kind as they kept talking about Geography. We didn't hold out much hope for one of them though after she enquired to the entire room “what is St.George? Is it a mountain?”. We got out of there as quickly as we could and had made up our minds to cut our losses and run. We packed up the car and set off towards the rugged west coast. We stopped off at a town called Roseberry mid morning and picked up a coffee from a café that had just opened gone 10am. We used the facilities and set off in search of a walk that was featured in our book of 60 short walks in Tasmania. It was simply called Montezuma Falls and it told us that they were the tallest waterfall in Tasmania. We veered of the highway and followed a tarmac track until it turned into a gravel one. We were reluctant to precede too far in our non 4x4 vehicle so I went ahead on foot to scout out the rest of the road. I wasn't convinced so we both went on to find where the walk started. It was only about half a mile down the road, so we decided to leave the car where it was and set off from there. We went back to the car, piled on the laters and jackets and headed off. For a “short walk” it was fairly long at 4km each way and our book told us it would take about 3 hours. The walk led us through thick rainforest but had a pretty flat pathway the majority of the way. Bearing in mind there had been 4 cars more suited to the conditions than ours in the car park, we were starting to get worried when we hadn't passed anybody until well over half way, then they all started appearing. After the activity, we passed a sign saying look out for the tram ways which we guessed had been used for mining years ago. There were hundreds of sleepers submerged in the sodden ground and it was a task to spot them and not trip up. A while after the sleepers had started we passed the shaft of an abandoned mine camouflaged by foliage but we didn't dare venture down it. Finally, we could hear the roar of water up ahead and knew we were getting close to the falls. The pathway narrowed to a single file wooden walkway and we had 2 choices of straight on or right onto a very narrow, high, slippery looking suspension bridge. I chose the bridge but after getting a little way out questioned my sanity. It was rather high and rather wobbly and rather slippery but when I got out the view of Montezuma Falls was incredible. Charlotte didn't fancy the bridge and had stayed on solid ground so I had to take the snaps on my own. I returned to Charlotte and we carried straight on to a viewing platform that was almost under the falls. We couldn't tell if we were getting wet from spray or from the rain that had just started falling. We didn't loiter around long as we were getting absolutely soaked and we retreated back to cover by the bridge. I went out for one last look and made it right across but didn't bother continuing down the path that was on the other side. Again, I returned to Charlotte and we started heading back towards the car. It rained the entire walk back and by the time we got to the toilet at the start we were drenched. We hung our wet clothes up in the car, wolfed down some late lunch and put the heater on max in an attempt to warm up a bit. The walk had taken us just under 3 hours but we did rush the return leg as we were both desperate for the toilet. The falls were fantastic though, so much better than we had both been expecting and probably worth missing Cradle Mountain for, as we would have had to have missed them if we'd done a walk there.
We joined back up with the road towards Strahan and went straight there as we were getting a bit tight on time, it was about an hours drive and we arrived just before 4 o'clock. Our first stop was at the visitors centre. Our Norwegian friend Sigurd and his family had been to Strahan (pronounced Strawn) on their visit to Tasmania and had recommended we take in a play there that had been running continuously for over 20 years. It is called The Ship That Never Was and is performed in an outdoor amphitheatre just behind the visitor centre. We purchased some tickets from the centre, as well as a pin badge and then hunted down our room for the evening. We only had an hour and a half until the play started so we had to be quick. We made a quick stop off at the supermarket and picked up some dinner and then drove down the road to Strahan YHA campsite. The man Charlotte had spoken to on the phone hadn't really sold the room too us, saying it was very small and only consisted of a bunk bed. We were generally happy with most things though and this room was absolutely fine. No smaller than anything we had ever had and it even came with a small heater. We didn't hang around long and after sorting some things out in the room, hopped back in the car to go the play. We'd heard from both Sigurd and lonely planet that there was quite a lot of audience participation in the play so when we entered the dainty amphitheatre we sat in the back row in an attempt to be missed. We were handed blankets and hot water bottles upon entering as it was a freezing evening with a bitter wind coming in off Macquarie Harbour. The basic story of the play is about a group of convicts who steal a ship they are building on Sarah Island off the west coast of what was then called Van Diemans Land. Neither off us got picked out to do anything until fairly near the end when they were looking for a hero. One of the actors eyes landed on me and said they were after Billy. After getting all cosy in the blankets I was reluctant to leave them but I certainly didn't want to be the party pooper. I headed down to play my part. Being the hero, I had to wrestle an imaginary tomahawk from someone's hand and then try and wrestle a gun from someone else's, all the while getting scratched by the ships cat. It was short and sweet and in 5 minutes I was back up next to Charlotte trying to warm up. It was really good fun, very funny and a very entertaining way to spend an evening in the small town of Strahan. I won't ruin the full story just incase anyone reading ever makes it out to Tasmania. If they do, definitely get to Strahan and give it a watch. The main cast of 2 told us it had been running continuously for 22 years and is the longest running play in Australia, so it was a privilege to be part of. We left very cold but very pleased with our days achievements and were looking forward to having some dinner and warming up in bed. It was pasta again for dinner with some mince we had picked up at a fairly reasonable price from Strahan supermarket. We had been told to expect things to be quite expensive in the remote areas as all the things have to be trucked out but the mince was no more expensive than home.
Stanley, Montezuma Falls and Strahan had all been fantastic and we were both really enjoying Tasmania and were looking forward to more to come. A visit to Cradle Mountain would just have to wait for another time.
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