TTFN Tasmania

It's my last night in Tasmania! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. Lisa and Jon have been the ultimate tour guides, packing a dizzying amount of activities and sightseeing into a week. I think they may have found new vocations! It's been amazing.

We went off to the Fresinet National park on Saturday, which sits up on the East coast of Tasmania. While there we visited wine glass bay, a stunning inlet that is shaped like..... a wine glass!

Getting to the best views of the bay involves a hardy 40 minute slog up hill. Getting to the beach itself means a very steep, knee jolting clamber downhill. However, it is well worth it. The sand is pale golden and the sea is azure blue. There was even a wallaby on the beach.

After a rest in the shade, we set off on the Hazards circuit. From leaving the carpark, to rounding the cliff and back was just over a wobbly, incline of 11km. It took us 5 hours, including photo stops, food breaks and jaw dropping scenery gazing. It was bloody brilliant. Hazard beach was one, long glorious expanse of sand. With just us on it. (Except for the one wandering backpacker). We even stopped and had a picnic of beef jerky and nuts on a large prominent slab of red granite, gazing out to sea as we soaked up the sun.

Once finished, we headed off to Fresinet Lodge for a very tasty meal (I had a rather delicious seafood green curry) and then Jon drove us over to Bisheno Bay. On the way, we saw possums! Super cute. We stayed in a fab little 1970s style lodge. I don't think it was intentionally styled that way though!

The next morning, I woke up to a wallaby sat outside my window!

We then visited the Bisheno blow hole, a fantastic fissure in the rocks where the sea squeezes inand explodes in a fountain of water. This is one of Tasmania's great tourist attractions. It was Monday and there were about 8 other people. Brilliant!

Off to the Bay of Fires next. Called because of the native aboriginal fires that were seen by the early settlers off the coast. However, the amazingly coloured red granite rocks could also lend themselves well to the name. The stretch of coastline is made up of several small bays, carved out like a bite from an apple. We visited several of the bays, all with the most terrifically white sand. It was so fine, almost like caster sugar. On one stupifyingly beautiful beach, which we had to get to by climbing through thigh high grass, the sand was so fine, it squeaked. Actually squeaked as I walked barefoot. I loved it.

On the way back, we stopped off in Ross for a cuppa and a custard slice. Ross is a rather British styled village, with an interesting bakery. Apparently, the bakery was used in an anime film, and since then has become incredibly popular on the Japanese tourist circuit!

After the two hour drive back, we finished the day off at a pub quiz!

My last day has been spent, with glorious sunshine, at Port Arthur. This was a large prison factory, where repeat offenders were sent to work and complete their sentences. It was a sobering visit, but incredibly interesting, especially the Seperate Prison. This was a terrible space, designed to cause psychological harm by seperating and isolating prisoners. They would spend six months in silent isolation, where even the guards communicated in sign language.

It is a unique sight, as shortly after the closing of the prison,it was quickly realised that the location was becoming a tourist attraction. The 1927 film 'For the term of his natural life',based on the memoirs of one of the prisoners was actually filmed at Fort Arthur.

This remarkable day has been topped off by tea at a friend of Lisa and Jon's. Robin is house sitting the most wonderful three story house, which has tremendous views over Sandy Bay and Hobart. Stunning. With several other of Lisa and Jon's friends we ate chilli and drank home made cider. Perfect!

I am now packed and ready to leave Hobart, birthplace of Errol Flynn! What an amazing and incredibly jam packed week. Thank you Jon and Lisa!

Fish n chips and pub history

This evening, Lisa and I booked on to a historical walk of Hobart's seafront area, taking in a few interesting historical pubs. It told of the bawdry recent past of the town and how much the area had changed in less than 200 years. From a densley forested natural harbour, to reclaiming land to the first settlers, the majority of whom were convicts.

It was of great amusement to Jon however that two of the pubs we visited were the ones we'd actually gone to last night. Ha ha! The tour was very interesting though. However, one couple brought their young kids, which I thought quite odd considering the tour was advertised as taking in the bawdry, tawdry past of Hobart. Mind, when the young boy asked his mum what a brothel was, and she responded "It's where the prostitutes worked", he didn't bat an eyelid.

After the tour we had a look around the beautifully reproduced ship 'Endeavour', which arrived in the harbour today. Sadly it was closed, but it was pretty impressive from the harbour side.

And then, fish and chips! I had blue grenadier fish, a deep sea fish, like hake, in a tasty crispy batter from Mures, a well known Hobart fish restaurant. Mmmmmmm delicious! I hadn't realised that fish and chips was an Australian national dish. They do it rather well!

Salamanca Market

Hobart has a market and arts area with the best sounding name.... Salamanca. It has a bond villain edge to it!

This morning, after much needed tea, toast and cereal, we wandered down to the market via the waterfront and the Antartic Research Centre (there really is something for everyone here). We even saw a baby albatross, which was about the size of a large crow. Speaking of crows.... the ones here make the weirdest noises. They sound drunk.

Salamanca market is huge! It has hundreds of stalls selling a huge variety of Aussie goodness including food, jewellery, honey, photography, bags, clothes and.... tea! I bought some presents and some Australian chai tea, Tasmania Lavendar tea and Mt.Wellington tea. Lovely.

I also tasted the most amazing lamb pitta type kebab from a Persian stall. It contained approximately half a lamb and I probably won't need anymore food until tomorrow.

Or maybe tea time.

The best way to clear a pub?

Own a pub and want to close up and get rid of your customers? Play Phil Collins at full blast! Genius. The pub was empty in 5 minutes! (Almost forgot this!) Although, secretly.... Phil Collins? Not so bad!

Every last ounce of Hobart!

Yesterday was an incredibly jam packed day! Totally non stop. Jon and Lisa make very good tour guides.

By lunchtime we had visited the Cascade Gardens, the Cascade brewery, met a stuffed Tasmanian Tiger and visited the very moving female convicts prison.

Cascades brewery has been producing beers since 1824 and the rather impressive golden stoned building wouldn't look out of place in Yorkshire. It was rather too early to taste the beers so we settled for coffeess over looking the sunny Victorian cascades gardens.

We then went to the Female Convicts Prison and took the 'Her Story' tour. This was an incredibly moving and emersive story of one female prisoners story, performed by two actors. The prisoner had been sent over to Australia for stealing a piece of silk, and as we walked around the large empty space of the prison walls, she explained to us the day to day hardships that she endured. As it was only the three of us and the two actors, it was very easy to become involved in the story. I felt very moved. At this point, it was very bright and sunny and I had to put my sunglasses on.

It was quite a different experience as after the performance the actors resumed their normal voices and were quite happy to stand and answer any questions we had. In fact, the two museum staff, Daniel and Claire also did the same, explaining many facts and figures of Tasmania's convict past.

It was then time for a trip up Mount Wellington, which stands over Hobart and the surrounding area and really doesn't look that big from down below. However, I am clearly not very good at gaging the size of mountains as it is in fact 1270 metres high! As we set off up the windy 22km road, the sun was shining and the skies were blue. The road we took had actually been hewn out of the rock during the great depression in the 1920s and 30s as a way of providing much needed work. As we stopped off at a midway point, we could just see the coastline stretching off towards the horizon. We could also see what looked like a rather dark rain cloud moving in from the sea. By the time we reached the top, the cloud was moving slowly in towards us. I was so glad that I'd been advised to bring lots of warm clothes as it was freezing! Within minutes, it was also snowing! Brilliant! Luckily we'd just had enough time to see the incredible views before the snow and hail clouds arrived, obscuring the landscape and throwing needle sharp hail at us.

As we drove back down the road, everything became covered in the lovely white stuff.

By the time we got back to Hobart, it was raining. So we went to a fantastic little tea shop called 'The Way of Tea'. Heaven. We were given a book of different teas to choose from. Brilliant! Live music as we walkedin, shelves full of large tea canisters, a bewildering choice of teas and excellent company.Perfect! Then, to make it even better, we had bento boxes with sashimi.....and the sun came out! I chose to have a flowering blossom tea, which was served in such a pretty glass teapot.

Following the great tea experience, we went back to Battery Point where I was introduced to a lovely little cafe, Jackman and McRoss where we had killer cakes (huge cakes!) and.....more tea! Hurrah! This was topped off with a quick tour of Arthur's Circus, the most amazingly picturesque circle of chocolate box cottages, with a little 'English green' in the centre.

A quick trip back to get changed and then off out to meet some of Jon and Lisa's lovely friends. A few drinks in a mixture of pubs and bars, one of which provided free, yes free, food. A plate of well needed sausage rolls. This pub, Preachers, also had an eclectic mix of old vinyls scattered around, including one by the late, great Harry Secombe. Plus, some rather fine artwork by a local artist. Before finishing the night, we popped to a 24 hour bakery and bought pies. Shepherds pie at midnight. What a brilliant way to finish off a top day!!

One of the houses in Arthur's Circus...

Exploring Tasmania and meeting a wallaby

Yesterday, we went exploring one of the local National Parks; Mount Field.

This was about an hours drive away from Hobart itself and took in some beautiful countryside. I am starting to think that Beautiful may be a slightly over used word, but I can't stop using it!

Mount Field has been a national park since 1916, when the surrounding area must have still been fairly inhospitable. I am starting to gain great respect for Victorian and Edwardian explorers and tourists coming to the area.

We meandered through the temperate rainforest for about 3 hours, taking in Russell Falls; Horseshoe Falls; the Tall Trees and Lady Barron Falls. I think the word of the day for me may well have simply been 'wow'.

However, most excitedly, I saw my first ever wallabys (besides the large flat one at the side of the road that morning). One skipped across the forest path, while another sat under the trees, washing itself and looking rather cute, cuddly and pretty!

Some of the trees in the forest, the eucalyptus, are amongst the tallest in the world, after the great Redwoods. As there are no termites in Tasmania, hardly any of the fallen trees, branches and bark is broken down and much of it stays on the forest floor for years. This makes for an eerie and tangled environment with huge, uprooted trees creating strange cave like areas.

The waterfalls were equally impressive......

We then headed to Lake Dobson, which was much higher up and very cold! The landscape changed dramatically as we moved higher up the national park, with the trees becoming much more sparse and the scrub becoming bleak and gorse like. It looked quite alien! Jon and Lisa then took me to see the Pandanni Grove, which ran alongside the side of the lake. It was like walking amongst Triffids!

I had hoped to see wombats as we were apparently in the perfect environment for them. We did see the rather cuboid wombat poo though, so they weren't too far away!!....

Homely Hobart

It's now Friday and I have been in Hobart for 4 days and I am loving it!

Jon and Lisa have made me feel so welcome. They even bought me chilli tea!

The view from their kitchen window takes in Sandy Bay Harbour and the hillside leading up to the impressive Mount Wellington. Their house is part of an old Victorian clapboard villa, split into 3 residences, with the most impressive sound proofing.

Battery Point itself is an old maritime village that takes its name from the 1818 gun battery set up to defend Hobart, but never used. The village is full of exciting little streets and alley ways' cafes and cottages and stunning views of the mountains.

Here is a view of one of the lovely little streets:

Wednesday, we explored the Salamanca art galleries on the waterfront, followed by a walk into the main part of the city centre. I have wanted to buy some merino icebreaker clothes since getting here and as Jon and Lisa needed to visit some outward bound shops, I thought this would be a great time to buy some. Ha ha! I shall be waiting until I get home! They are rather more expensive here, close to the home of the Merino sheep farmers, than back in the UK. However, on a more exciting note, Jon and Lisa managed to order some backpacks for their tremendous 2 month trip to Japan, China, Cambodia and Vietnam, which they head off on in 3 weeks time!

Tea in Salamenca.....