CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

Hey! This is day 2 of my tour that I took through Tasmania with Under Down Under Tours! Visit their website to read all about the tours they offer, including the Super 7 tour that I was on (not sponsored). Make sure that you’ve read Day 1 first, too — find it here.

February 20, 2023 — Today was a split day for our group. We woke up in Strahan and got going for the day at 7:00am. A bunch of us were bound for Montezuma Falls and the Henty Sand Dunes, while others were on their way to a Gordon River Cruise (an optional extra on the tour).

We had a bakery stop in the morning and once the group that was bound for the Gordon River Cruise was dropped off, the rest of us headed to Montezuma Falls. Between Strahan and parking at the trailhead, it started raining. We trudged through the forest up to the falls, following an old tramway that was used by a local mining company, the Montezuma Silver Mining Company, back in the 1980s. The tramway connected mining operations in the hills to smelters in Zeehan. Montezuma Falls is one of Tasmania’s 60 Great Short Walks — short, in this case, meaning 10km return. It was a beautiful walk, though, even if I couldn’t see very well for some of it because I pulled my glasses off for all the raindrops. The views of the mountains rising around us on the trail made for a special brand of seclusion.

On the way to the falls, we came across an old mine shaft (also called an “adit”) which is similar to many others that still stand in the hills around Montezuma Falls. Gold, silver, lead, and zinc were mined in this area. We also had the awesome opportunity to take a look at the falls from a suspension bridge that runs across the creek that the falls feeds. The views are really impressive, certainly the best waterfall I’ve seen so far on this trip. Montezuma Falls is one of the highest waterfalls in Tasmania, with a drop of 101 metres.

A few hundred feet past the suspension bridge and we came upon the view of Montezuma Falls in all its glory.

By the time we made it back down to the bus, we were all soaked! Some of us made it back sooner than the others and we sat and nibbled on candies that our guide, Keygan, had brought along and ate lunch while we waited for the others and tried to dry off and warm up a little bit.

Once we got going again, we headed for the Henty Sand Dunes. This was one of the stops I was most looking forward to on the tour because I love the dune beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park back home. The Henty Sand Dunes are just as impressive, if not more so! We had a ton of fun playing a game on top of the dunes, taking cool pictures, and then running down the dune that we gasped our way up about an hour before. (And while running down the dune, I face-planted into the sand, but we’re not going to talk about that anymore. It was really funny, honestly, and thankfully a soft landing!) It was also awesome that the sun came out just as we arrived at the dunes, so we all got to warm up a fair bit before we left.

We picked up the rest of our group back in Strahan, then headed to Ocean Beach, another one of my most-anticipated stops on the tour! Ocean Beach, aside from being a beach and therefore automatically awesome, is also the longest beach in Tasmania, stretching 33.5km. You might recognize this beach from the news, as this is the beach that a whole bunch of whales have ended up stranded on in recent years. Its other claim to fame is the stupendous air quality that is consistently recorded by the weather station, better than that recorded anywhere else in the world. Standing in this area, therefore, means that you are breathing the freshest air in the world. It really does smell fresher, too — more full, somehow. The beach’s last claim to fame is that it records the highest average wave height out of all the beaches in Tasmania.

When we returned to Strahan, we made a quick grocery stop, then some of us freshened up quickly and made our way down to the Strahan waterfront for a play called “The Ship That Never Was”. This was an optional extra on the tour, and it was money so well spent. If you’re ever in Strahan, make sure you get to a showing. The show has been running for over 25 years, every day. It is Australia’s longest running play and has logged over 6500 performances. It uses a main cast of only two (and sometimes three) and uses audience participation (mostly voluntary) for the remainder of the roles. It was hilarious, and I loved watching one of our tour members and our guide get up there and act out the play with the others on stage. It was so much fun.

The basic premise of the play is that the two convicts (which comprise the main cast) have to convince members of the court of law not to hang them for stealing a ship, taking it to Chile, and orchestrating a mutiny. They were escaping Sarah Island, a convict settlement off the coast of Strahan, giving the play such rich local history. Not only highly entertaining, but also educational, as the play is based on true events!

We got back to the hostel at around 7:00pm and finally got dinner. I finished off my delicious tacos that were left over from the previous night and then took myself off to the shower and got ready for bed. Lights out early because we had to be on the bus for 6:30am the following morning!

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