Tasmania Holiday Day 8
25th November 2006
We awoke this morning at Bronte Park and without much aplomb we ate breakfast, packed and set off on our way to Strahan.
On the way we stopped at the “The Wall” which is historical events depicted in a wall of carvings. However at $7.50 per adult we felt it just wasn't worth it. Had the artist set his admission price a little lower he might have made some sales.
We pressed on and stopped at Lake St Clair – A national park not far from Bronte Park and was in fact one of the contenders for last nights accommodation. It had a good visitor centre and Harrison was impressed to see a “real-life dead echidna”. We also learnt of the overland track which is a track from Cradle Mountain National Park to Lake St Claire National Park. It is about 80km long and takes 6-8 days. We have resolved to come back and attempt this at some stage. It looks quite easy with humble shelter along the way – hopefully alleviating the need to carry a tent, though it may be still prudent to take one. We also spoke with some gentlemen who had just completed the track and they recommended it. We had a bite to eat as well, and although the food tasted great, the service left a lot to be desired.
Back on the road, we spotted a very-much alive echidna just off the side of the road. The children were most impressed!
Onward we went and arrived at Queenstown after negotiating an extremely windy hilly road – Good driving Poppy! There wasn't much to see in Queenstown so we kept going. After going down the wrong road, we headed off to Strahan.
We eventually found our accommodation, but found the managers were not there when we arrived. We did make contact with them, when we heard the train horn from the Western Wilderness Railway engine. Nanny stayed behind to meet the manager and the rest of us took off to find the train. We had initially planned to take this train from Queenstown to Strahan but as it turned out, time and money were against us. We also discovered that it was a diesel engine pulling the train; it was not steam powered! This formed a great deal of the allure, so we are glad we didn't go for this option.
We headed back to the unit, the kids prepared for birthday parties for their toy monkeys, Jimmy and Snowy, and Chris, Mark, Nanny and Poppy played frustration. Nanny won again!
We headed out to find some dinner and after discarding some more expensive options, settled on the Regent Point Pub. The food was quite nice and was more realistically portioned than our previous nights meal.
We returned home, watch the Tri-Nations football result in a nail-biting Australian victory, and had another game of frustration. This time Mark was the winner. The night was also not as heavily punctuated with flatulence as the previous evening which was a welcome change.
As per usual, everyone was quite tired and all crashed into bed.
