Tasmanian adventures continued

Strahan and Sarah Island: In spite of what we had been told about the west coast's foul weather, and in spite of all the rain we were experiencing, we made the trek out to one of the end's of the world, to Strahan, on Macquarie Harbor. To learn a bit about Australia's convict history, and see World Heritage Site-quality temperate rainforest/wilderness, we took a catamaran cruise on the Gordon River. Through rain showers, we headed out to Hell's Gate, then entrance to Macquarie Harbor. Only 75 m wide, it effectively limits entrance to a harbor 5 times the size of Sydney's. The rain ceased just as we reached the rainforest, where we disembarked to take a short trek through dripping "pines" of several species. Huon Pine is the most famous - actually a Podocarpus, it grows very slowly for 1000s of years, forming dense, hard wood of great longevity. One of the best timbers for boats, it was harvested by the convicts confined to Sarah Island, a 12-acre dot within Macquarie Harbor, where the worst of the worst convicts endured the weather of the roaring forties. We had a guided tour of Sarah Island, where we learned that after the early, most horrible years, when convicts formed suicide pacts to "escape," and 1 escapee who headed overland with 6 others but was the only one to make it to Hobart (he ate all of the other 6 during the effort), things actually got better for the convicts, many of whom were convicted originally of nothing more than stealing food. A ship builder came to Sarah Island, taught them a trade, and they built many ships. it was so much of a success that the Motherland shut down Sarah Island - expensive to maintain and totally ineffective in deturring crimes of convicts elsewhere. I guess we haven't learned much since then! To be continued ...