NOV 10, 2004

Rob and I have parted company for a while. I am still in Strahan and he is on the road on his way to Lake St. Clair via Queenstown. I decided that I needed a bit of a break from cycling. I'm still pretty tired out from the GSR - more tired that I supposed I would be. I also took a look at a molded elevation map of the next bit of road and decided that if I were to attempt that 130 km stretch right now with a loaded bicycle it would probably take me something over 12 hours!! So instead I went on the Gordon River Boat Cruise - a 6 hour cruise out into the Southern Ocean, along some amazing feats of engineering and building by the convicts in this area (training wall and breakwater), back up the Gordon River to walk along a rainforest (I still find it amazing that there are rainforests this far south), and up to Sarah Island where the convicts were kept and where we had a great tour around the island.

Right now I am in Queenstown. I had to change busses here and have a 2 hour layover. It's raining and chilly out so I thought I'd drop into the local library and use the computer for a bit. Queenstown is interesting because it is an old mining town and when they mined the area they also must have logged it too because it has been completely cleared of all trees. The hills/mountains around are copper colored and devoid of plantlife. I have heard that the barrenness here has become such a tourist attraction that when people do try to replant the trees, others come along and tear them out.

The road up to Queenstown from Strahan made me VERY GLAD I made the decision to take the bus!! It is indeed a road UP to Queenstown. I'm not exactly sure what the distance between Strahan and Queenstown is, but I'd say that about 3/4 of it were UP a twisty narrow road. I was feeling a bit ill on the bus. I would have taken weeks walking up all that if I'd ridden.

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