The Beach, the Southern Ocean

Not having done much running or hiking recently (a side effect of having an old dog) - and what hiking I did was on skis, so no downhill steps - yesterday's roughly 3300 feet up and (more importantly, I think) back down has generated massively painful quads today. Walking down steps is an ordeal.

So, I drove down to Strahan (I can't pretend to come close to the local pronunciation - something close to "strain" or maybe "strayin' ") and went for a walk on the beach. The beach is 33 km long - one of the longest in the world. I didn't quite make it to the end. I had read about it in a Sea Kayaking magazine article sometime back - there are no landing sites, and with the usual wave conditions of the Southern Ocean (no longer in the Indian Ocean down here - it's the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean) - it's impossible to ever get a kayak on and off the beach, so you have to paddle the whole 33 km in one go, often in tough conditions.

Today was as good as it ever gets - very little wind, only small local waves, and a swell of only 3 meters with occasional 4 meter sets. But, the surf zone looked to be 3 or 4 hundred meters wide so would take 5 or minutes to get through. The break is typically 50% higher than the swell so you're looking at having repeatedly to try to get through surf that's well over 10 feet. Never happen - not with the strongest paddlers. 33 km to go to the next landing!

Strahan is a nice little seaport town on a quiet harbor. They've got a bunch of cruises around the (very long) harbor and up the local river, but all had left for the day and were long enough that I didn't want to stay for tomorrow's cruises. And the evening cruises only run during summer.

So, drove on to Queenstown - big Copper Mine that has torn up a very large area of the mountainside above the town. Currently shut down and a major restoration effort going on. Pretty old town, not very prosperous, but has a Wilderness Railway somewhat like the Durango narrow gauge.

Staying here in an old hotel with a grand stairway listed in the National Historical Register. They cut the wood locally, shipped it to England to be carved, then shipped the completed stairway back in 1904 to be installed.

I've got some pictures, but my camera battery ran out and I don't have my charger - so won't be able to download them until tomorrow.

One note from yesterday: the high boggy areas above treeline all have elevated boardwalks for hiking (Bushwalking) - looks like a major advantage for preservation of the environment. A step ahead of Colorado.

The hot news in Tassie is a proposed detention center for refugees. A bit of a fight between the NIMBY group, and those who want it for the jobs and income it will provide. Refugees seem to be a big deal here - with not an excessively welcoming attitude. In 2007 they came from China, Malaysia, East Timor in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, North Korea, and Lebanon. I've heard that Afghanistan is now heavily represented. Oh, and a big brouhaha about a Tassie government minister who let slip that a shadow minister had applied for a job and was only ranked 4th among the applicants - should've been confidential. Remember that Tassie is only 500,000 people - half the size of Denver. So, State Government is drawing from a small pool of competent people and well, it's small townish.