Gordon River Cruise. Wilderness at its Best

 We stayed at Strahan Holiday Retreat Big 4 because it is only a ten-minute fast-paced walk to the main wharf and saves you the hassles of finding a parking spot. If you’re driving there, you would have to pay for parking whether it’s off-street or in parking lots. 

Once we got there, we entered their ticketing place / gift shop, to get our tickets. We have already purchased our tickets online but you still need to get your tickets to get your seating number(s) before boarding ‘Spirit of the Wild’ cruise ship – check-in at 8am for 8.30am departure for our six-hour tour journey. 

We purchased ‘Main Deck Central’ @ $135 pp, because it was the cheapest and knowing that you are free to move around the vessel and use the open-air decks during the cruise, there is no need to buy window seats. This ticket price includes chef-prepared buffet lunch (smoked salmon, ham, chicken drummets, pickled beetroot, potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad, cous cous salad, lettuce, bread rolls and butter – that’s all I can remember) plenty of food to go for seconds – I’m guessing buffet lunches are seasonal, we did our cruise in Summer. 

Also included in this cruise are 2 x walking tours: ‘Heritage Landing’ rainforest (first stop) and ‘Sarah Island’ (second stop). Our tour guides for the day was Jack and Bree (taking turns sharing their knowledge and history) and in between our commentaries, further stories were told by our wonderful Captain James Kelly and other characters displayed on a television in front of you, it felt like they brought us back in time - a nice touch. 

While all this was happening, Ben the captain of the ship, took us through Hells Gates and on to Gordon River, cruising by picturesque rainforests, unfortunately we didn’t get to see the famous reflections as the weather wasn’t calm enough – it was 16 degrees, slight winds, a bit of shower and cloudy. 

Heritage Landing rainforest was breathtaking with aromatic freshness the rainforest has to offer, including the ancient Huon pine – but please be mindful, do not touch any flora as instructed by our tour guides. The walk was at a comfortable pace, the grounds were easy to walk upon and if you choose, there is someone waiting at each point-of-interest to share their knowledge and history of the rainforest and surroundings. 

You do have the freedom not to join in and do your own walk – but you do have a curfew, when you hear the ship’s horn, it’s time to head back. When we returned, lunch was then served. They do have a neat little system, where they have a couple of rows of the buffet lunch, so you don’t need to line-up in a single file but three separate lines to speed up the process. 

The cruise continued to our next stop ‘Sarah Island’ again you have the option to join the tour guide waiting for us when we boarded off the ship OR you can do your self-guided walking tour (they have brochures available for a gold coin donation), we joined our tour guide ‘Peta’ instead. I have to admit, Peta was really good with the voice re-enactment and expressions of what perhaps a convict would have behaved. Lots to see on Sarah Island and the ruins left behind, Peta gave us a thorough explanation of each ruin that made sense to us, that we were able to visually put the ruins together in our minds. 

Then it was time to head back and complete the cruise. Although we did the cruise in Summer, it was quite cold during our walks with a slight drizzle, I do strongly suggest to bring waterproof, wind-resistant jackets, enclosed comfortable walking shoes, sunglasses and sunscreen – you would still get burnt when it’s an overcast day. I highly recommend this cruise, it is definitely value for money and suitable for a young family even elderly people – the walks aren’t strenuous, it’s an easy pace. 

Although there is room for improvements. When we had lunch, there is a neat little system in place, but if the guests found a short cut, they would take it. This is when staff should be at the buffet as well as at the front of the ship directing people the path they should be taking. 

We were seated ‘Seats #101 to #104’, there is a bit of a gap there, where people were walking through and we couldn’t sit on our seats when we returned, until someone in front of me noticed and took lead and redirected the rest the path they should be taking, that left us with the opportunity to be seated – thank you to that person, much appreciated. 

Another suggestion is when we were with Peta, although she had a booming voice, when she turned her head addressing to the rest of the crowd, it was hard hearing what she was saying. Perhaps a small microphone attached to her shirt would have been better a better help.

Bald Critic Rating