Strahan, on the west coast of Tasmania, is the base for the Gordon River Cruises, which give a six-hour introduction to the various components of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
We walked from our hotel down to the cruise center past this remarkable collection of roadside vegetation.
We boarded our comfortable ship, the Lady Jane Franklin II, at 8 AM, and began by sailing through the huge Macquarie Harbor under a dramatic sky to its narrow and treacherous entry, Hells Gates, guarded by a small lighthouse.
We turned back into the harbor, passed some fish farms (mainly trout), and entered the Gordon River, broad and bordered by steep mountainous banks filled with wonderfully profuse vegetation, including some Huon pines that may be two thousand years old.
The wake of our ship made a beautiful addition to the riverbank scenes.
We disembarked from the ship at Heritage Landing for a half-hour guided walk, on a very well-designed and well-maintained elevated walkway, through the dense and variegated temperate zone forest that contributes to the World Heritage designation.
Reboarding the ship, we sailed to Sarah Island, the notorious British colonial prison settlement, where convicts were held under the harshest imaginable conditions in the early 1800s.
This fine actor gave an enthralling dramatization of the turbulent history of the penal colony as she led us around the island.
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