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Today we started late again because I decided
to make damper for breakfast which took a while, especially
considering all I had to mix was water and flour. I forgot the
salt this time butt tasted good anyway with some butter and
blackberry jam we bort in Zeehan.
We decided to leave the tent standing and
camp again tonight. The spot is nice, even though it is mostly
not native. Large pine trees replace the gums and blackberries
have replaced the ferns. Rabbits are running around instead of
pademelon wallabies, I’m glad Tassie is not all like this!
On the way to Strahan I decided to take some
4wd tracks through the pine forest that headed in the same
direction. They were ok, a bit different than the usual tracks,
they took us up and down hills surrounded by pines all around
and not really much scrub, just pine needles on the ground, it
seemed like a strange eerie forest. The track lead into shrubs
further on that scraped over the car as we passed, but to get
revenge I ran over lots of ones growing in the middle of the
track. Eventually we got back to the main road.
In Strahan and went to the Ranger station to
ask about the permit and key for the Mt McCall track. The
Ranger called up the Queenstown Ranger, and arranged for us to
meet him in Queenstown at 9:00 tomorrow. The Rangers were very
helpful and we found out the Queenstown office had been empty
because there are not enough Rangers to go around.
We drove on up to the Henty dunes and
wondered around a bit. We found a large dune about 30 metres
high that had collapsed at the edge and was quite steep. We
dared each other to go down the steep bit. I of course rose to
the challenge and went down first with my feet sinking deeply
into the sand as I slid down which was fun, Jo then followed my
footsteps. The only problem now was getting back up, we decided
it was easier to find a way in between the dunes and managed to
get back to the car. I had been thinking about going for a
drive out on the dunes but we couldn’t find an access point to
the beach from where we were, only later we realised we could
have driven up from the ocean beach entry near where we are
staying, Doh!
Back in Strahan it was raining. We were
wondering what to do, so we went to the main street bakery, and
had a pie and sausage roll for lunch, which was a nice change
from our usual sausages and pasta meals. We felt a bit spoilt.
Jo also had a really good hot chocolate. The prices were not
too bad, considering the town is very over commercialised and
touristy. It seems even more touristy than last time, and it is
annoying how almost every parking spot needs a ticket.
 The rain continued as we drove back out to
Ocean Beach, and went out for a walk in the rain. It was a bit
cold so we headed back to Macquarie Heads, just past our camping
spot, where we were surprised to find a few beach houses and
another camping area. We hadn’t actually gone to the end of the
road yesterday.
We stopped at the end of the road and went
for a walk up the beach and past hells gates, the infamous
opening to the Macquarie Harbour. The sun had come out and it
was nice now, so we also decided to go for a bit of a drive up
the beach, it was a nice easy drive and definitely quicker than
walking up the beach. We took some pictures and went back to
our camping spot.
Jo made a pinecone fire, and re heated some
pasta from yesterday that had been frozen in the fridge. We had
some tim tams and chocolate for desert. Mmm mmm. We’ll have
an early night tonight so we can get up early and get to
Queenstown by 9:00 for the Mt McCall track key.
Just when we were about to head for bed, a
funny looking Ukrainian man and his son (which I thought was his
daughter at first) came over looking for help. He had just
turned up to camp for the night near by, but he had car trouble,
with oil leaking from his auto transmission. He explained how
he had tickets for the train ride in the morning and needed to
get back to town by the time it started. We felt a bit bad
because we weren’t able to give them a lift because we only have
two seats in the car at the moment, the rear ones were removed
for more space for this trip. So I drove him up to Macquarie
heads a few km up the road where he asked the care taker if
someone could help him. The caretaker was able to give him a
lift in the morning, and then I think he was going to call the
RACV after his train ride.
One thing we have noticed about Tassie apart
from the wildlife and amazing forests are the long days. They
seem to start at about 5:00 and don’t get dark until about
10:00. I guess the reason would be because we are so far down
in latitude compared to Victoria and also because it is
approaching December 21st the longest day of the
year.
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