Surprisingly
we are in Queenstown tonight. I say surprisingly because we were
expecting to be in Strahan but, thanks to some heavy rain overnight
and this morning, the camp site we were aiming for near Hell's Gate on Macquarie Harbour was very
waterlogged and, of the two caravan parks in town, one was
waterlogged to the extent that they were not letting anyone on their
numerous vacant sites and the other was, surprise, surprise, full.
So, here we are very comfortably settled at the caravan park in
Queenstown.
Having
said that, we had a very successful day in Strahan in that the rain
stopped and we were able to comfortably wander around the tourist
precinct of Strahan and enjoy an afternoon on the West Coast
Wilderness Railway.
The railway meanders through lots of pristine temperate rain forest (of which we have now seen a lot) but there is an unfortunate side effect of the mining activity being the reason the railway came into existence. The same activity which stripped the hills surrounding Queenstown of its vegetation also polluted the Queen River which runs into the King River along which the railway travels for part of its route.
The river is a muddy brown colour, not the tannin brown it would be if still in its pristine state and doesn't appear to support any life although we did see a couple of ducks on it not far from where it joins Macquarie Harbour. The tour guide on the train did express some optimism that it was improving but it obviously still has a long way to go. It does have great reflections though.
Notwithstanding
that, the railway is very well done and an excellent experience.
We
found this Huon Pine info. Maybe there is some hope
yet.
We
are booked into an unpowered camp site in the Discovery Holiday Park
at Cradle Mountain for the next two nights being the only camping
option for Cradle Mountain. The gentleman in the next site said that
it is going to be very cold. Given that it is 10 degrees here, we
might need to dig out even warmer gear and break out a red wine.
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