So actually slept relatively well last night which was good.
But I let the sweetie have a good lie in and back stretch and so we didn't get out the door until 10:20.
Our first stop was all the way out at Macquarie Heads (the eastern side). When we got to the beach I was looking at the ominous clouds and thought we were going to get moist. But we'd left our rain gear in the car. hmmm. Walked north for quite a ways before turning around, and sure enough we got moist. Whoops. Not too bad though and dried off in the aircon in the car.
View southwest to the other side of Hells Gates
I think we might get moist
Pacific gull at Macquarie Heads
Bonnet Island lighthouse
Entrance Island and lighthouse
Back in Strahan we drove out to Lettes Bay which for some reason Stu has fantasies about living in. Except the houses are all tiny little shacks all on top of each other. Not my idea of an idyllic lifestyle at all. Probably all done up and AirB&B'd now..
Lettes Bay
Old fishing shacks at Lettes Bay
Old fishing shacks at Lettes Bay
Duck and ducklings at Lettes Bay
Stopped at the railway station so I could take a few photos. They're still working on the line between Strahan and Queenstown. Good excuse for us to come back so we can do the entire trip instead of just doing a bit from either end which is all you can do at the moment.
View to Strahan from Regatta Point
Regatta Point train station
Harbour at Strahan
Then we headed out to Zeehan. Bit of a depressing place. Used to be busy and vibrant, but a shell of its former self now. We had some lunch in one of only two open places in the historic centre of town, then went to the museum a bit after 13:30. It's quite an interesting place and in fact quite big. They say you can do it in an hour. Yeah right. At 15:35 we'd only done the first indoors bits and I sat down for a moment to check the closing time and it closed at 16:00. WTF?? So then we basically had to race around the entire rest of the museum in like twenty minutes. #grunt. The ticket is valid for seven days though and we will be passing through again soon so maybe we could take another hour to take in the rest of it a bit better.
Post Office at Zeehan
Mile post at Zeehan
Trains at the West Coast Heritage Centre
J1 class 2-6-4-0 tank locomotive
The Daimler rail car used at Mount Lyell mine
Assay furnaces I think
Azurite
Hematite and chrysocolla
Various minerals
Queensland opal
Tasmanian crocoite
Dendrites
Fossil hat - recovered from Spray Mine where it had been water for 50 years and had calcified
Display next to the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre
Blacksmith workshop
Blacksmith workshop
Blacksmith workshop
Steel head frame from the Oceana Mine at the foot of Mt Zeehan
Pelton wheel
From Lake Margaret Power Station
Model of Renison Bell Tin Mine
Steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
Drivers cab of the black steam locomotive
Rail trike
Zeehan School of Mines and Metallurgy - does this sound like Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?
Exterior of the Gaiety Theatre
Stu decided to skip going out to Trial Harbour - too long on a gravel road and he was stressing about his back, so we just headed back to Strahan and listened to more of Diary of a Bookseller.
View towards Queenstown
Welcome to Strahan sign
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
Picked up some dinner from the IGA (tv dinners ftw!!) then back to the van. Booked our next accommodation based on sketchy forecasts of Cradle Mountain. BOM is seriously hopeless anyway so maybe it'll be wrong. Then GPS/photos/blogging.
Comments