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.

Mount Wellington

The smoke haze from the bush fires is still lingering this morning. Today is our last full day in Tasmania so this morning was our last chance to go up to the summit of Mount Wellington.

The drive to the summit (elevation 1,271m above sea level) is pretty windy and takes about half an hour to get there from the waterfront. It was already 24 degrees down in the city and were expecting a bit of a reprieve at the top. (The rule of thumb is 6.5°C/km of elevation gain.)

We got a reprieve and some! So much for 6.5°C/km. The wind chill factor and a menacing storm combined to bring the temperature down under 5°C. There was a weather station there to back up our shivering.

This wind-swept rocky landscape, that is also covered in snow part of the year, is a hostile environment that allows only small shrubs to cling to the edge of existence.

The views of Hobart and surrounding environs are very impressive. It was just a shame that the smoke haze and some cloud cover ruined it a little.

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.

Transit to Hobart

 

Today was always going to be a long day in the car. We had to get from Strahan on the West Coast, to Hobart all the way on the east. Non-stop, it normally takes around four and a half hours to cover the 300kms.

However, something was amiss this morning. Outside, the light was erie and the air was thick with smoke. We soon learned that the bush fire that was threatening Zeehan yesterday was diverted just in time but was also bearing down on Strahan. We didn't want to hang around to find out and thought it would be better off if we weren't a burnden on the local authorities. So we packed the car and high tailed it out of town. Our route took us back through Queenstown, beyond the range and across Lake Burbury (and, more importantly, further from the fire).

Nelson Falls

Soon we were at our first planned stop, Nelson Falls. The picturesque Nelson Falls Nature Trail follows the Nelson River upstream for less than half a kilometre. I was hoping for a spectacular cascading waterfall. Unfortunately, as for most of the other waterfalls, on this trip, there was only a trickle of water and we were, once again, left disappointed.

We took the obligatory photos and continued on to our next trail stop, the Franklin River Nature Trail (below).

Franklin River Nature Trail

The circuit trail loops around where the Surprise River & Franklin River Converge.

It wasn't the most interesting trail we had completed during our tour, but there were a few things to see including some very interesting fungi.

The rivers were more like creeks because the extended drought conditions were having a major impact on the normal environment. This area is a rainforest, however most of the plants (mosses especially) were clearly suffering from the lack of water.

Lake Sinclaire

At around 130kms from Strahan was to be our final diversion to Lake Sinclaire. The Lake stretches from Derwent Bridge, north toward the Cradle Mountain area.

The Visitor Centre on the Lake shore marks the end of the Overland Track. Remembering, we had been at the other end of the track a fews days previous.

We had originally planned to take a cruise on the lake, but the wind was not friendly and the threat of yet another fire had the rangers a bit jumpy. We explored the shore trails for a little while and let Harry stretch his legs. The rangers had given us some information about the many fires. We had planned to do a hike in the Mount Field National Park, closer to Hobar, however we were told that it was close because of an approaching fire. It seemed that half the island was under threat. We decided that we should get across to Hobart as quickly as posible to avoid being cut off and have to back track and add 600kms to our drive.

About 50kms down the road we were very nearly cut off! An enormous fire (above) in the Great Lake area was tracking south and was a mater of 20kms from the main road. We made it through, but only just. The rest of the drive was pretty horrible because we were essentially driving through smoke and couldn't see much further than a kilometre at best. We stopped at Hamilton to eat our picnic lunch. It was 40 degrees and there was ash flying around so we stayed in the car. We were hoping that Hobart would be a bit more hospitable.

We were pretty relieved to make it to Hobart and our home for the the next few days, Eliza Cottage (above). We are hoping the smoke clears a bit tomorrow with an expected change to the wind direction.