Back at our hide out (from march flies) at Regatta Point we chilled out in the air conditioning. We did venture out late in the afternoon to explore the town including the Post Office (above).
There isn't much to see in Strahan, to be brutally honest. The harbour has it's fair share of fishing & cruise boats. The waterfront has a number of restaurants and pubs.
One of the fishing boats didn't look to be in the best shape. We asume an electrical fire changed the paint job.
We soon tired of Strahan and set off for Ocean Beach (above). I had it pegged as somewhere we could have a swim and body surf. The smell of smoke form forest fires had been building since we had returned from our railway adventure. The beach was where we realised how serious the problem was. The smoke was being blown toward the ocean, but the sea breaze was haulting its progress. I'm sure Ocean Beach is pristine most of the time, but today we weren't venturing much beyond the car park because it was very difficult to breathe.
So it was back to Shrahan where we learned from the hotel staff that the forest fire was threatening Zeehan! We were only there yesterday! We had been hearing about multiple fires across the island, but had managed to avoid any interference until now. We are heading back to Hobart tomorrow and maybe that is lucky.
The smoke made for some interesting sunset photos, but there was a sinister undertone to them.
Hopefully we can make it across the island tomorrow without incident or a lengthy diversion.....
