First stop was the Cadbury factory for a tour. We’d been told that it was essential to book if you wanted to do a tour so I’d rang on Friday and arranged it for today. The cost of the tour is $12.50 per head; I think they must be making as much money from the tours as they are from selling chocolate. There are 20 people in each tour group and a group leaves about every 10 minutes and the tour lasts for an hour.

We got to the factory early but it gave us time to look through the gift shop. They have the old “Why is it so?” ads with Professor Julius Sumner Miller playing on a TV set and models of the chocolate people from the newer ads. There are also samples of chocolate to eat.

The tour was quite interesting; you get to look through the factory at various stages of the production of chocolate, mostly the Roses type of chocolates. Tony looked stunning in his hair and beard nets. At the end of the tour everyone gets a small gift box of chocolates.

I don’t think there was one straight stretch of road on our trip from Hobart to Strahan today. The road wound its way up through the mountains and down the other side only to wind up another mountain. The weather was the same as the last time we changed camp, cold and wet. In the thick of the forest on the mountain top I think the weather was only about 8°.

We stopped at Derwent Bridge to have lunch and refuel. It also gave us a chance to put on the wet weather gear, a neck warmer and some warmer gloves. We were only putting on the wet weather gear as a wind break to keep us a bit warmer, but it was just as well we did as it started to rain not long after.

An hour or so further along the road we stopped at Nelson Falls for a look and to take some photos. It was raining steadily.

We rode on through Queenstown and on to Strahan. We’ll have to go back for a look at Queenstown while we’re here; it looks interesting, but will be better on a drier day.

When we arrived at the Caravan Park the manager asked where we’d come from today. When we told her Hobart she said she’d thought so, we had that look about us! It’s a big trip, even though it’s only about 300km, the road is winding up and down through mountains the whole way, making it a very tiring trip.

In the morning we went for a look around Strahan, there’s not too much to the town, quite a few booking offices for the various tours that can be done in the area, souvenir shops and a nice gallery. Most of the galleries in Tassie sell things made from local timbers; Huon Pine is the prized timber.

The afternoon we spent at the caravan park, the closer we get to the AGM the more Ulysses members are around. There are plenty at the caravan park. Wayne and Hazel from Bunbury arrived wanting a powered site, there were none available, so we offered to share our site with them, we have plenty of space, and it gave us a chance to meet a nice couple. Ricky and George are also at this park, as are a group from Central Coast of NSW and quite a few others.

We aren’t getting internet reception at Strahan so I went to a nearby internet café for an hour this afternoon to try to update the website.

At 5.30 we rode 2.5km to People’s Park and did the walk to Hogarth Falls. The park and the land surrounding the waterfalls was donated to the people of Strahan by a family last century. The reason we went so late in the day was to try and see some Platypus; the tourist info says that they can often be seen in the mornings and late afternoon, we didn’t see any.  It’s a pleasant 40minute return walk to the falls along a fern lined path.

We rode to a lookout high over the town, then down into town for a bit of a look around. There is a rack and pinion railway that runs from Strahan to Queenstown and we read the information panels at the station. Many of the people we’ve spoken to at the caravan park have taken a ride on the train and say it’s very good.

After lunch we cleaned the bike, socialised with others around the park and went for a walk along the beach. The weather is lovely and a few people ventured into the water for a swim, not warm enough for me to swim though.