Cradle Mountain to Strahan

 After a good nights sleep and a cold start to the day we headed off to our next port of call, Strahan. This is a 140 km ride that will take over 2 hours to complete due to twisties and road works. There are a few mining towns along the way like Rosebury & Zeehan, and a few waterfalls to visit as well if time permits. Unfortunately for us there were a lot of unsealed roads to the falls so taking the big beamer there was out of the question.

The twisties finally gave way to some nice long bends with an occasional straight section and we arrived at Strahan in time for a mid morning coffee. Strahan is very tourism oriented, with the Franklin river and Macquarie Harbour cruise, the heritage rail and Morrison's Huon pine saw mill. At night you also have the long running pantomime 'The ship that never was'. We had done all of these the last time we were here and thankful that we did. The train doesn't go all the way to Queenstown at the moment, where it did when we went.  The harbour cruises still run as does Morrison's and the pantomime. 

We checked into our cabin at the Big 4 Strahan and then made our way to the train station for lunch at Tracks on Point. This was recommended to us by the guy at the Servo where we refuelled. I wonder when he ate there last? Although the meal was good, the 1 hour wait for it was a bit excessive and I had to remind them I had an order in. The French cook/chef seemed a bit non-plussed that I questioned the time frame, and considering my linguine was microwaved it was a disappointing show. I know Ann's chicken burger was cooked fresh as I watched him cook it. We could have eaten at  'The Kitchen', but the prices for the meal serves there seemes excessive. The last time we were here we ate at the 'Bushmans' which was always busy and had exceptional meals. Unfortunately it seems Covid shut it down and it hasn't reopened. 

On our way back to the cabin we stopped at Morrison's. The scent of the Huon pine is intoxicating and I struggle to leave there, wallowing in the scent and old world charm.  I had wanted to get some pine slabs for Ann's glass art but they didn't have any cut, that suited our needs. I did pick up some offcuts of Sassafras and Huon Pine for a woodturner back at our gallery. There is also a gallery next to the mill that has some exceptional timber work, metal work and other items on display and for sale.

Back at the cabin, we discussed our evening meal and were told of a place down the road that cooks fresh fish and Lobster for you while you wait. Sounds great, so that was the plan. We arrived at the food van with a half a dozen people in front of us waiting. They had no Lobster and only had flake (shark) or flathead. Flathead is a nice eating fish but when a large serve is about 180 grams of fish and they charge you $40 for it, I smell a rat. Needless to say we settled for flake at $28 a large serve (2 pieces + chips). Salad was extra, as was lemon and tartare sauce. They were out to make a dollar for sure. What was most disappointing was the fish wasn't fresh, it was defrosted flake and only just eatable.. The chips were good tho! We took our meal back to the cabin and sat on our balcony eating them under the watchful eye of a Currawong. Apparently there are Platypus in the creek behind the cabin but we didn't see any when we were there..

We had only planned one night at Strahan and in hindsight, maybe a stop off on the way thru to somewhere else might have been a better option. We were planning an early start the next day to head to Hobart so we had a relatively early night.