We had booked on a Gordon River cruise today so had an early breakfast before walking round to the boat. Luckily although it was chucking it down when we first got up by the time we were ready to leave it had actually stopped and there was even a bit of blue sky around. We had booked the all inclusive trip which basically meant that all food and drink was included for the whole cruise which was great as they brought round bubbles at about 9.00 and they didn’t stop all trip! We started from Regatta Point and went out to Hells Gates this is a really narrow entrance to the harbour from the Southern Ocean, it was called Hells Gate as it is really hard to navigate through and the prisoners coming through were on their way to ‘hell on Earth’ the prison on Sarah Island was for those that had either committed another crime while serving a sentence elsewhere or had already escaped a couple of times from other penal colonies elsewhere. There are actually what looks like two channels but although one side is navigable the other is only 1 metre deep, in the late 1800s they built a wall under the water in a triangular shape which stops the entrance silting up. The harbour is the second largest in the Southern Hemisphere after Port Phillip and is several times larger than Sydney Harbour. After just going outside the entrance into the Southern Ocean we turned round and headed for the Gordon River which is one of many that feed into the harbour. There are a number of fisheries in the harbour where they farm Trout and Salmon, apparently because they are farmed they are obviously fed regularly but they have to add carotin to give them the required colour and they actually had a colour chart on board as Australians expect Salmon to be number 27 but the Asian market which is where they sell a lot of it require a number 45 which is almost red. Looking at the chart we tend to have somewhere between 22 – 24, all very interesting. The UNESCO Tasmania Wilderness Wold Heritage Area is actually quite a large area that goes from Cradle Mountain and down to the Harbour. The water in the river and harbour is very dark because the soil in the area is full of tannin which colours it although it doesn’t taste at all and because of this the area is famous for the reflection of the mountains in the water but this can only happen when it is calm which it wasn’t today, all the same the area was really pretty. We moored a little way up the Gordon river and got off to walk round the rain Forrest which is similar to the area we walked through yesterday to the waterfall, then it was back on board for lunch before our other stop which was Sarah Island. This island was a penal colony from 1822 – 1833, to start with it was harsh and one of the most feared places to be sent to but ultimately although not a summer camp conditions improved mostly because they were very productive building 131 ships over a period of 12 years. We had a guide on the island who explained where all the buildings would be and discussed some of the conditions and how things changed, the colony closed after a such a short period of time mostly because they couldn’t get supplies to the area easily, apparently it took 36 hours to get things from Strahan to Hobart but 3 weeks to get them the other way! There was also a women’s prison but this was on the small island and only ever had six prisoners on it. The women were not kept there for very long and ultimately the island was used for the most dangerous male prisoners who were put on the island in chains that had been staked into the rock. After the prison was closed they left a few prisoners on the island to get them to complete the boat they were building but once it was finished they actually ‘stole’ it and sailed to Chile to escape, unfortunately after living in Chile for a year before they were returned to Australia, however they escaped punishment as the boat had never been registered therefore it wasn’t property and therefore it wasn’t a theft. After this we headed back to port and walked down to the saw mill which has been in the same family for 4 generations. They are only allowed to mill trees that float down the river or are on the forest floor as part of the conservation of the area but the wood is really nice and they make some great things out of it. After this we went back to the hotel for a coffee and relax while deciding if we needed to actually go out for something to eat as we have done nothing but eat and drink all day!
