Long Drive Through the Rainbows and a Change of Plan

We walked down to Salamanca Place for brekkie and had a very nice dish of scrambled eggs on sourdough toast in one of the cafes. Then we checked out of the hotel and started the 300km drive from Hobart to Strahan which, we had decided would be our overnight stop on the way to Cradle Mountain.

The scenery on the drive was stunning as we followed the river Derwent as it wound through the hills and valleys, occasionally stopping to take photos. The weather was very mixed. One moment it would be sunny, the next rainy, the next both. This meant we saw about half a dozen rainbows during the trip which just highlighted the scenery even more.

We stopped at Derwent Bridge for a coffee, initially going into the Derwent Bridge Hotel (just after a coach party of pensioners had arrived and were being ushered to their tables for lunch) only to discover that the only coffee they had was instant. So we doubled back to another cafe that we had passed a couple of minutes earlier called the Hungry Wombat and had a "proper" (albeit decaf...) coffee and a piece of cake each.

Thus replenished, we set off on our way again, heading through the trees, down the extremely twisty road towards Queenstown (the next bit of civilisation) and then on to Strahan. The road down to Queenstown was very, very twisty as it made it's way down the side of the mountain into the mining town. Queenstown isn't the prettiest of towns, but it was nice to get there as it meant the end of the drive wasn't far off.

After some more twisty roads we ended up in Strahan about 2.30pm. We parked and headed to the local tourist info to find out about accommodation and whether there were any tours/actvities we could do.

Accommodation wasn't a problem as there were several places we could choose from. The two main tours that they do here are a boat trip up the river and a rail trip throught the rainforest to Queenstown. Unfortunately, both are day tours and we had missed them.

The other trip that we had read about, a boat trip out to one of the islands to see the little penguins wasn't running, so we were out of luck.

So, we went to see what accommodation we could book. We went to the Strahan Village reception and had a look at one of the rooms they had overlooking the harbour. It was lovely, and on the way back to reception to confirm it, we booked in for their buffet dinner.

Once that was done, we had a quick wander around the harbourside, stopping for a coffee before returning to the hotel bar for some tapas (cheese & onion tortilla, chilli pepper squid) and a drink overlooking the harbour.

Our plan was to drive to Cradle Mountain tomorrow and head back to Hobart to catch the Salamanca markets on Saturday. However, after chatting to some people in the bar who were talking about the railway trip throught the rainforest we decided to book that for tomorrow and head to Cradle Mountain on Saturday, forgoing the markets, which meant booking an extra night here in Strahan. It turned out that residents of the hotel get 10% discount on the train trip, which was a bonus so we booked the train and an extra night in the hotel.

The buffet for dinner was pretty good. As a bonus, the bar had James Squier, so i was able to get a decent beer too. There was plenty of choice and I started with a roast pumpkin soup and then had a selection including some Atlantic trout with wasabi mayo, mussels, scallop, pear and walnut salad and a selection of antipasto veggies. After finishing that, I returned to the buffet bar to have pink ling with an orange and fennel sauce, garlic scalloped potatoes, roast potatoes and brocolli. The ling was pretty dry and tasteless, but the garlic spuds were lovely. Finally, I waddled back once more to sample the pavlova, choccy caramel slice and washed it down with some custard...

The hotel has wireless, but it only seems to be available in the bar/restaurant area. I purchased an hours worth which hopefully will be enough for me to upload this blog and a few pix. If you are reading this, then I guess it was.