Hobart - part 2

On the Saturday, we naturally visited Salamanca markets, where we were delighted to see Cary Lewincamp and pick up a new cd. Cary's lovely guitar music was the soundtrack of our previous trip to Tasmania ten years ago, and the cds always make us think of Tasmania.

The markets were very busy and very large,  with so much to look at - and eat! 

After the market, we visited Mawson's Huts Replica museum, which was a fascinating, and slightly sad insight into the age of Antarctic exploration. 

The huts are exact replicas of the ones being conserved in Antarctica, which very few people can actually visit.  There were also screens showing actual footage from the expeditions, and a lot of information about the men and dogs who took part, and the tragic expedition that claimed the lives of many dogs,  two men and almost Mawson. I think I was more sobered to read that most of the brave explorers then went off to WW1. Most of them survived, but it seemed to me they had already given enough for their country.

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary is home to a large number of breeding Tasmanian Devils,  and older Devils that are no longer in the breeding program.

It is also a refuge for injured wildlife, such as Randalf the echidna, who was missing a leg.

And some seriously cute baby wombats.

As well as some kangaroos, for the kids to feed and pat.

We visited the Cascades Female Factory, which was the prison for women in Van Dieman's Land, where thousands of women and their children suffered.  Many children were born and died in this cruel prison,  which flooded knee deep in foetid water each winter. 

The horrors of the fate of the women was brought home by an excellent living history play,  which told the tale of one female convict.

We took advantage of a sunny day to drive up to the top of Mt Wellington, 1271m above sea level.  So impressive to see Hobart way down below. 

We had intended to visit MONA  on our last day,  but I didn't realise it was closed on Wednesdays. Big oops. We will have to rearrange our trip to come back to see it!  Recovering from this set-back, we set off to explore South Arm, and marvelled at Oppossum Bay, where the houses are built right on the beach!

Hobart

We stayed in Hobart for a week. Our park was way out near the airport, but we had an ensuite site which always makes me happier. The weather was patchy still, with a few sunny days in between the rainy ones.  Still, we got out and about every day.

Our first excursion was to Richmond, where, of course, we looked at the bridge.

The main point of visiting Richmond was to see Old Hobart Town, which is a scale model of Hobart in 1820. I particularly loved the high attention to historical accuracy and the comparative photos to today's Hobart.

This area of modern Hobart is now land, filled in by convict labour

When we were leaving we had a chat to the owner who said his father had been inspired to build it after visiting Cockington Green in Canberra and realising that there were no model towns of real Australian places. If you are interested in history, I definitely recommend visiting this one!

Our next excursion, on a slightly sunnier day was to the magnificent Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens. These are the second oldest botanical gardens in Australia, established in 1818 (there will be celebrations next year!).

The most noticable result of this age are the huge trees and spacious lawns, as well as the lovely conservatory.

We were fascinated by the heated wall wending through the top of the garden - where warm air was piped through a wide wall from small fires at intervals along its base to grow stone fruit and other cold sensitive plants. It was built in the early days of the settlement but rarely used, as the Australia is actually warmer than England. Not that we noticed that much, with hail falling while we were having lunch in the cafe!

Naturally we wandered through the community food garden which features on Gardening Australia.

We visited the sub-Antarctic garden, in a cold, wet, windy room designed to mimic conditions on Maquarie Island. Brrr!

I loved the cottage gardens, with such an array of gorgeous flowers.

We spent a lot of time in the lovely Japanese garden, which is very beautiful.

Such a lovely place - my photos don't do it justice.

An interlude - Mt Field NP and Lake Pedder

We left our van in New Norfolk for a night and journeyed out to Strathgordon, which is a long and windy road with no caravan park at the end of it.

Mt Field National Park is the oldest in Tasmania,  and is probably the most visited.  The walk to Russell Falls was wide enough for at least 4 people walking arm in arm,  and suitable for prams and some wheel-chairs.  The falls were still spectacular.

A slightly less manicured track took us to the tall trees.  Seriously tall trees. 

After our walks we drove on to Strathgordon, where the weather was incredibly changeable.  We had sun, rain and even hail!  Strathgordon is another ex-hydro building town which has been converted to accommodation, although some houses are still used by hydro employees. 

We had a look at Serpentine Dam, which was quite impressive. It was strange to see how much smaller Lake Pedder had been, and to read that some people think it could still be returned to its original state by opening the dams.

But the poor Serpentine River doesn't come out the other side.

On to the Gordon Dam.  By now it was very rainy and very cold.  The dam wall is amazing.  We looked down from the top, but we didn't walk on it because of the rain.  The canyon was so deep we couldn't see the bottom.  They run adrenalin abseiling from here - how terrifying!

There is a rope bridge (I think) way down there

It was sobering to read that a 2km stretch of canyon had been dammed for this hydro station.  It must have been an amazing place before that.  It was also shocking to realise that this dam is above that pristine river we cruised on back in Strahan.  The water is released a km from the dam to run out through the wilderness to Macquarie Harbour. Thank goodness they didn't put the second dam in and flood the rainforest.  I'm all for green hydro energy, but it's very sad to destroy wilderness to get it.

The mountains are huge and very rocky.  Quite awe-inspiring.

After our exploring, it was lovely to come back to a heated restaurant and hotel room. 

There is an amazing tree slab here, huon pine, dated to before the birth of Christ.  But again,  it was cut down when they built the dam - no dam and it would probably still be growing. On the other hand, a lake is much nicer than a coal mine or coal fired power station.