Strahan, Day 1: Another driving day, but …  

Every second day of this roadtrip part of our holiday is a driving day, and today’s, from Stanley to Strahan, was one of the longest. However, even a long drive in Tasmania is usually not that long, not like driving in central Australia, for example, as we did in July. So, we realised we had time to do something else in the day. One option was visiting Zeehan to check out its pioneer/mining museum. Another, though, was the one we chose – the Montezuma Falls walk.

To do this, we had, of course, to get to the walk and there were several ways to get there from Stanley. Consequently, I set up Google Maps on the iPad and off we set. Then, for fun, just because I could, I thought I’d try Apple Maps. I like the voice on Apple Maps better than Google’s in fact. She’s less imperious than Ms Google. Fortunately, she chose the same route. Well and good – so far. However, as you probably know, all these GPS apps/service are a little different. Len likes the Metroview app which provides information on speed limits and operates out of mobile phone coverage, so I set that up too. (Mr Metroview’s voice is pretty OK too so I didn’t mind.) However, he chose a different route, the alternative one eschewed by Ms Google and Ms Apple.

Just as we were to make some important route decisions Hannah called from Melbourne. She was driving her super-duper new car with its hands-free phone technology. She was lost! It was her first weekend with her car but, unbeknownst to her, it was Melbourne Marathon day, so her route to her chosen destination, the South Melbourne markets, was completely up the creek. Her GPS kept trying to get her back there but its re-routing kept returning to closed streets. Hannah was getting frustrated, so who does a girl vent to? Ring her parents. Good for her – but her timing was not the best. Suddenly, I was trying to manage three GPS voices and listen to Hannah simultaneously. There’s a limit, these days, to my multitasking skills so in the end they all had to go except Ms Apple until we got back on our feet. Phew, it got a little hairy there for a while, particularly for driver Len!

Eventually, though, we arrived at the old mining town of Rosebery, found a traditional takeaway shop open (it was a Sunday, after all), bought some chips (Sue) and a pie (Len) to sustain us, and then it was back in the car to find the walk trailhead.

Montezuma Falls

This walk is in the wonderful website and app, 60 Great Short Walks in Tasmania, that we’ve been using in tandem with recommendations by my brother to locate walks. The walk was described as a 3-hour easy, level, return walk to the falls. It goes through temperate rainforest along what was once an old mining tramline. It was exactly as they described it, all 9.6kms of it. It was easy, if pretty repetitive, walking, and the 104m. drop Falls really were (are) beautiful – and we had just about the perfect day for it in terms of weather for walking and light for photography. I must say though that I found the narrow suspension bridge, across which you walk to get the best view of the full drop, absolutely terrifying. Woman on tightrope? I don’t think so!

The return walk, we did find a bit of a slog. Still level – after all, it was the same path we’d gone in on – but we both suffered from foot soreness. However, we got back in the allotted three hours, and were very glad we’d done the walk.

The assumptions we make

I forgot to share a story in our Stanley Day 1 post. Our lovely host and guesthouse owner, as she was showing us our room, talked of the restoration work they’d done on the room, a side-room, in her historic building. The floor was black, she said, and needed multiple sandings, and then multiple layers of oil. All this reminded Len of a certain renovation/building TV show, so he made a reference to it without actually naming the show. Oh yes, our host said, she watches that all the time, but it’s very unrealistic, she said. You can’t do an en-suite in a day, for example. Tiles have to be allowed to dry before you can do the next step. However, she still loves to watch The Block, she said! That, of course was not the show Len was referring to, but we decided it would be too complicated to explain, so we left it at that. Later, we realised just how complicated it would have been, as when we turned the television on to watch LateLine, we could not find ABC at all. The only channel was Network 10!

Still, it reminded me, once again, of the assumptions we tend to make and how easy it is to miss the mark. A good lesson.

Strahan, at last

We got to Strahan soon after 5pm, did a little walk about town, and managed to find a free table in what is probably Strahan’s best restaurant, the Bushman. The reviewers were not wrong. Lovely, interesting food served by friendly staff – and at excellent prices. Decent Tasmania wines, including a delicious Holm Oak chardonnay, was available at $8 per glass. Entrees were imaginative. We shared nori rolls lined with smoked salmon, and served with a light wasabi sauce. I tried a local fish, the Stripey Trumpeter for main course, and a pavlova for dessert.  It was Sunday night and we were lucky to get one of the few free unbooked tables. We’d go there again if we got the chance.

Today’s pictures

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Video walk of the Montezuma Falls Suspension Bridge

Montezuma Falls

4 thoughts on “Strahan, Day 1: Another driving day, but …  ”

  1. It’s a lovely walk (but better bike ride) to Montezuma Falls. We wheeled our bikes across that bridge a couple of years ago, but, better still, carried our bikes and panniers down into the gorge and up the other side before the bridge was there and when Helen was pregnant!

  2. Lovely to hear of your adventures you two! The perambulatory ones and the gastronomic ones!
    I hope Hannah got to the markets OK.

  3. What an intrepid family – very impressed with the bridge walk. Is there a limit to the number of people allowed on it at one time? But it must have been worth it all the same – even if only to be able to brag that you did it!
    Very impressed, too, with your ability to guide Hannah around Melbourne whilst guiding yourself to the Falls. Perhaps you missed a career in plane tracking at an airport!

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