Strahan

We started our trip to South West Tasmania Sunday morning by picking up our campervan rental.  We were quite impressed with it.  It was a hi-top van with seating in the back that converted to a double bed with a refrigerator, gas stove, sink and cupboards even further back.  It was a manual transmission which we were a little nervous about since Ben hadn't driven one in a while but it ended up being fine.

We had to stay in a little cottage across the street from the caravan park on Sunday night because the caravan park was full but moved over to a powered site at the caravan park for Monday and Tuesday night.  Monday we drove over to Ocean Beach which is the longest beach in Tasmania at 40km long.

We drove back to town and stopped in at Tasmanian Special Timbers where you could buy pieces of all sorts of Tasmanian hardwoods such as Huon Pine, Myrtle, Sassafras, Blackwood.  Next door was a shop with wood souvenirs such as salt and pepper shakers, bowls, boxes.  All of the wood used is reclaimed wood so as not to damage the forests.  The Huon Pine is an amazing tree that is very slow growing, can be thousands of years old, and the wood is very resistant to water and rot.   



After lunch we took a short hike to Hogarth Falls.

Can you spot the rainbow near the base of the falls?

We walked into town for fish and chips for dinner and slept the first night in the campervan.  It was surprisingly comfortable but we were glad to have three blankets because it was quite chilly.