Hobart Departure?

 

After breakfast, we loaded up the car and made our way to the airport for our direct flight, scheduled to depart at 10:30 AM. If all went according to plan, we’d be landing in Perth by mid-afternoon.

Mum’s flight to Brisbane was set to depart just half an hour before ours. With heavy hearts, we shared our goodbyes and watched her head off.

Things took a turn for the worse shortly after. Our boarding was delayed, and it wasn’t long before we noticed the engine cowling on our aircraft was open—a clear sign something wasn’t right. Given that Hobart Airport is relatively small with limited aircraft maintenance capabilities, this wasn’t exactly reassuring. After a couple of hours of uncertainty, we were eventually rebooked onto a different flight—ironically, one bound for Brisbane—scheduled to depart later in the afternoon.

We had braced ourselves for an unexpected overnight stay at Mum’s, but fortunately, the connecting flight to Perth came through and we arrived home by 10:30 PM local time. While the travel hiccup was far from ideal, it was a small bump in what had been an otherwise fantastic and memorable holiday.

Constitution Docks

 

I woke up early this morning for some reason. I poked my nose out the door and noticed that the smoke haze had finally gone. I decided to grab my camera and head down to the water front.

Early mornings are my favourite time of day for photography. The soft light and still air makes for some wonderful photos.

In hind sight, the clear skies would have made for a better Mount Wellington experience this morning rather than yesterday, but time wasn't our friend,

As the sun started the dominate the sky, they photo quality started to faulter so I packed it in and went back for breakfast & to pack for the flight home.

Derwent Cruise

 

We took a lunch cruise around the Derwent harbour area on the Spirit of Hobart, decked out in the same paint scheme as the Ferries running out of Devenport.

The boat left from very close to the Salamanca Market place (above), which looked completely different to the crazy tent city we had visited on Saturday.

The cruise wasn't breath taking by any stretch of the imagination, but it was nice just to chill out listening to the comentary about the history of the area.

Tasmanian Museum - Dinosaurs Take Flight

Sortly after lunch, Harry & I went to the Tasmanian Museum to check out the special exhibition.

'Dinosaurs Take Flight' has an array of exhibits tracking the evolution of feathers on dinosaurs leading to the emergence of birds. They vary from intricate small fossils captured in slate...

.... to massive Cerotopsian skulls....

... and impressive life-like animatronic models.

Salamanca Markets & Constitution Docks

Happy Australia Day!
We were so glad to wake up to clean air this morning! The wind had changed direction so we didn't have to deal with our lungs being choked at long last. Today is Saturday, so it is Salamanca Markets day in Hobart. Now, let's be clear. I'm not a markets person to the point where I actively avoid them. I dislike the over priced junk most of the stalls sell and would rather stay clear of the crowds. However.... The Salamanca Markets are a totally different level!

These markets are huge! Located on the historic Princess wharf outside the original Salamanca Market buildings, the stall tents seem to go on forever.

There are loads of people (unfortunately), but the contents of the rows for stalls is of a much higher quality. During this tour, we have found the fresh produce to be exceptional and that markets have that in spades!

You can buy almost anything there, from hand crafted art pieces....

...to flowers.

And from chocolate, cheese and honey........

.... to crochet hooks and knitting needles.

And from lavendar products....

... to Gin. And everything else in between. It was very impressive.

Also, among the stalls, were various types of entertainers. Some, pretty average, and some, like Cary Lewincamp (above), were really very talented.

There are more permanent shops in the Market building and with them, art pieces, eateries and playgound features.

There was a limit to mine & Harry's tolerance, so we left Kerri & mum to keep doing market things while we set off to Constitution Docks to check out the boats & anything else we could find.

The docks are home to the full spectrum of boats, from the smallest run-abouts and fishing boats...

To Cruise ships. Some of the more interesting ones follow...

We are booked on the The Spirit of Hobart (in the same scheme as the ferries in Devenport) for a harbour cruise tomorrow.

One of the pilot boats that servie the harbour.

This enormous trimarran ferry was bound for Italy having been built in Tasmania.

A float plane docked near the cruise ship.

Tug boats.

And seal sculptures. No shortage of things to see.

Just before lunchtime, we set off out the back of the Salamanca dock buildings and up Kelly's Steps (above) which lead up to Battery point.

I'm not sure what we thought we'd find on Battery Point, but we didn't find it. There were lots of heritage cottages but nothing overly interesting like a canon or some sort of military post.

Harry did manage to meet a new friend.

Hobart to Bicheno

This was out view this morning from the breakfast table in our apartment. The clear sky allowed us to see Mount Wellington in full splendor.

Today our route (above) took us from Hobart to Bicheno with a few stops and detours including the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens before we'd even gone a kilometre from our overnight stay.

Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

The gardens are fairly impressive with a number of very different environments.

 

 

 

Harry got in some photography practice in prior to us getting into the adventure properly.

Richmond 

And so we set off on our adventure. Richmond was the first tourist stop on the way to Bicheno. Richmond is about half an hour's drive from Hobart. Richmond has two main historic sites, the jail and the bridge.

We did a tour of the gaol which was both interesting and horrifying. It is the oldest intact gaol in Australia.

A bonus for Harry was a fire truck parked outside the gaol.

The Richmond bridge is Australia's oldest stone span bridge. Harry seemed more interested in the water birds.

Orford

We followed the narrow windy Tasman highway along the Prosser River valley to the east coast. Orford is a small holiday village located where the Prosser River meets the Pacific Ocean. We thought it was the perfect place to eat our picnic lunch.

Three Thumbs Lookout

After lunch we took a short detour into the state forest south of Orford along a steep and windy dirt road to the Three Thumbs Lookout.

The view from the lookout was surprising. We could see across to Maria Island (above) and along the coast north to the Freycinet  peninsular (below). We would follow the same coast for the next couple of hours. Tomorrow we plan to visit Freycinet tomorrow.

Harry was busy with his camera again trying to capture the perfect shot.

Raspin's Beach

A kilometre from Orford is the lovely Raspin's Beach which has brilliant powder white sand and tranquil clear water. (Three Thumbs lookout is at the top of the small hump just to the left of centre of the photo above.)

The drive north was fairly unremarkable until we were alongside the bay just out of Swansea. We could clearly see the Freycinet Peninsular across the Great Oyster Bay.

Swansea

We stopped at Kate's Berry farm just outside of Swansea for a cooling ice cream while we enjoyed the view across at the peninsular. There was no berry picking to be done, I think because it isn't that kind of berry farm but the ice cream was well worth the stop.

We did pull in briefly to the Swansea township, but the wind was howling so we kept going.

Bicheno

We reached our base camp for the next two nights in Bicheno around mid afternoon. We have the entire top level of the house below which was more than adequate to spread ourselves out and be comfortable for a few days. The view from the deck of the coastline is nothing short of stunning. The photo above paints about half the picture.

While Kerri & mum hit the supermarket, Harry & I headed for Waubs beach for some much anticipated digging & splashing in the Pacific Ocean.

As the sun set, the animals around the house started to come out of their daytime hide-outs. There seems to be a family of Bennett's wallabies that call the area home. Tomorrow we are off early to Freycinet National Park to beat the crowds to Wineglass Bay.