Day 101: Hobart

Tuesday 15th March

Accidentally deleted this

Mount Wellington

Salamanca

Bridge

Botanic Gardens

Harbour- fishing boats and jam factory

Cascade Brewery

Distance:

Total Distance:

I accidentally deleted this whilst tired and trying to upload over 2 weeks of posts.

What I deleted was the best blog article you could ever have read. These is a poor attempt at reproducing such work. Also I'm in New Mexico now so I'll probably just hammer through and get it done. Sorry Hobart.

The morning came with the rude awakening when someone had stollen both my breakfast and my leftovers from dinner. I've never knowingly had anything stollen at a hostel before or since. This was a shock to me. As did the middle aged man getting beers out of the fridge. I have to say this hostel was picked for me by the tour company I was with- the cheapest in Hobart. Tassie Backpackers. It was odd and awful. 

So breakfast was toast and vegemite, which isn't too bad a start at least.

Our tour was a selection of day trippers, people who had just finished the five day tour I was about to do around e rest of the island, and two of us just starting out. Our tour guide for the day looked like a thinner, younger, Peter Jackson.

The weather was coming in quickly that morning. We had been scheduled to go up to Mount Wellington later in the day but we wouldn't see anything with the clouds descending on the summit. So up there early for a cold walk around and stare down at Hobart.

It's Scotland! Or maybe the Yorkshire Dales! The summit was cold, windy, and wet, but I've dealt with that a million times. I went and explored the rocky summit and stared out at the moor land that stretches out to further mountains and hills. Back on the Hobart there's a glass building to protect tourists from nature as one looks down onto the city. I got some better views and pictures at the lower lookouts below the glass house. We could see out and down to the estuary and river that the city-port is built around. 

We went down to Salamanca to pick up lunch. The plan was to buy something to later eat in the Botanical Gardens so I went in search of the recommended bakery. Salamanca is now an upmarket selection of shops and restaurants. It was once the warehouses that serviced the port. They became derelict but were refurbished and are now the centre of late night eating for tourists and locals alike.

Before the gardens we made a quick stop on the other side of the estuary. From here we could see the main bridge that services Hobart. Many people live on the far side and work in the city. The airport is on this time too. 

It's not easy for captains of commercial shipping vessels to get between the columns supporting the bridge though. There was one major crash that occurred in the middle of the night. It was decided that the captain hadn't been going fast enough to work against the current and get past the bridge. He took out three columns before falling to the bottom, where the ship still lays. A gap opened on the bridge and, being dark, many people lost their lives driving into it in the first few minutes of the disaster. This gap wasn't closed for a long time. The work done on the bridge extended many commuters' travel time by hours going up river to the other bridge. 

Now a system is in place that the bridge is closed whenever ships are going beneath e bridge. This is great for stopping accidents of the same scale but can add a surprise 20 minutes to the transit time to and from the airport. You have been warned!

At the gardens I started on the large bags of very cheap tomato and onion rolls I'd bought at the bakery. I wouldn't eat them all, which meant that they could later replace my lost left overs and breakfast.

The Royal Botanic Garden of Hobart is small but lovely. They have a new Japanese garden which feels like a 1/4 scale picturesque, perfect, valley, complete with scale water mill.

A red brick wall dividends the garden and provides shelter from the troublesome Tasmanian climate. Hidden by it is the mixed temperate border featuring flowering plants from across the world as well as the rose beds.

Further over is the Victorian glasshouse. Unlike most though only the roof is glass. The walls are made of thick, insulating, sandstone. Inside the place is glamorous and sculpted with a central fountain and hangin baskets all around. It looks like a Graeco-Roman shrine!

Down at the harbour we were shown the variety of fishing boats used here commercially. Most go out at night or early morning so a good number were moored. 

There was one that goes after a Japanese delicacy- a shellfish people must dive to pull up. A special license is needed to do this dangerous job and there's only 1 running out of Hobart. The shellfish are worth huge amounts of money though, so it's a great business if you've got the million or so needed to start up.

A few were the usual fish or pots boats. Another that caught my eye though was the one with black painted throughout its deck. This is a squid catching boat. It goes out at night, puts lights over the edge, and squid swarm to the light. These can then be caught with a hook and brought on board. However, firstly they produce their ink, so the black deck doesn't get noticeably stained by the black ink. Secondly the black doesn't reflect the lights, so any squid on the deck doing try to scuttle off towards the lights.

Alongside this harbour are more old warehouses plus a jam factory. These have all been renovated after decades of squatters. There was a problem with the jam factory though, which is now an upmarket hotel and art gallery.

The jam factory was active in the Victorian period and into the last century. Seems they weren't very good at getting the jam into the jars though. When the newly installed heating was turned on in the hotel guest began to report sticky carpets and walls. They eventually had to close down for a time. The stone walls were saturated with jam! The heating was left on until all of the jam seeped out of the building.

You could say it was jam packed!

Last tour visit of the day was to the Cascade Brewery. Not so keen on Cascade beers- they feel "manufactured"- not made with the artisan love of other old breweries. This feeling was born out by the tour of their factory. Couldn't complain quite so much though when several in the tour group gave me one or two of the "free beer" tokens though. Lots of free beer for me :)

That evening I had a quick, quiet walk around Hobart. Being Tuesday the cinema was half price! So after dinner and a shower I was the ONLY person watching the 10pm showing of Deadpool!

Day 106: Port Arthur prison to Hobart

Saturday 20th March

Port Arthur prison

Richmond the historic farm town

Distance:

Total Distance:

Having spent the night in what was an excessive house for four people, next to a field of wallabies and a cemetery, we went to go pick up the others. 

With them on board all seven of us handed off for a couple of local seaside look outs. 

At the coast we visited Remarkable Cave. To get to the look out platform for this one we had to climb down several flights of stairs to get level with the cave. In reality it's more of an extended arch- we stood above the sand and looked out onto the sea beyond. One of the remarkable things about the cave is that when you look through it the space through it looks like the out line of Tasmania!

There were also a collection of bones on a boulder behind us. My professional opinion is that these were Wombat bones. Probably an animal that had fallen through the foliage and down the cliff. Wonder who put them up on the boulder though, so that the wombat stared at every passing visitor?

Next to this was also stopped at Maingon Lookout- more beautiful cliffs, more clean sea water.

The big event of the day was Port Arthur- "Australia's Best Known Penal Colony". And there was me thinking it was Sydney.

In the early 1800's we were filling Australia with people who stole bread to feed their families or £1 handkerchiefs from men worth thousands. Some of these made it to Hobart, but so had many civilised people. With the growing number of prisoners there were complaints from the free people. Thus Port Arthur was built. The peninsula is nearly an island, with an isthmus of only a few hundred metres across separating it from the main island. This made it an excellent prison- this little piece of land could be guarded by a small number of troops. Eventually the would get some "wild" dogs too, chained at regular intervals including on rafts on the water, to help the work too. The dogs were introduced after one convict tried to escape dressed in a kangaroo skin. He didn't realise that the guards were as near starvation as the prisoners though. Kangaroo's good, tasty meat- he nearly got a musket ball through his head until he surrendered. Now there's a memorial set up to the dogs here. The guards don't get one though.

We visited the main site and were given a short introductory tour. There's a large collection of buildings, many still in fairly good condition after the many years of visitor in the 20th century being encouraged to take home souvenirs from the buildings. The main prisons still stand, including the psychology destroying silent prison- in which prisoners could never interact with anyone for years at a time. This was a new idea that had come across from Europe which sounds like it caused more problems in the long term than it solved. 

There are also a couple of churches. One is the old, simple, wooden church. The other is a huge church that could hold nearly every inhabitant of the colony, prisoners, staff, and wives included. Most of the stone was, surprisingly, quarried by young boys.

Not long after the prison was opened it was noticed that young children were staying with the men. Boys as young as 9 could be sent to the colony. They were learning bad traits from the men as well as taking abuse in there. There was an island out in the harbour so this was opened as the world's first ever children's prison- the idea soon spreading to Britain. However, boys will be boys- the first shipment made up purely of boys sent to Port Arthur had been too clever. They'd worked out that their position in the ship was next to where the crew kept their supplies of alcohol. The boys cut their way through the wooden wall, arriving at the prison hammered. As punishment they were forced to stand outside, under the sun, for two days!

There was also a boat trip out around the harbour. They showed us some of the areas the prisoners had worked- such as forestry, timber, quarrying, and boat building (which they were apparently very good at). 

We also saw the boys island and the Isle of the Dead. This was the cemetery for the port, where even staff and free people could be buried- although most of the prisoners went without any form of headstone, not even a wooden cross.

On our way back we were informed of the other major escape attempt that was managed. The governor would take his boat out every day to inspect the harbour and the boys. This boat was rowed by a gang of trusted prisoners. These men would go down to the boat shed each morning, get the boat, row to the governors personal pier, and pick him up. One day they just missed the last bit, and carried on out of the port. So began many months of them in a whale boat rowing around Tasmania. At first they'd steal supplies from small settlements, but once parties had been sent out for them they'd even pretend to be a search party and ask for supplies to help them in their search! Eventually they were caught and returned, never to be given such freedom ever again. What's more the governor was personally charged £10 for the safe return of his favourite boat by a transport company!

Down the road we visited the "Unzoo"- named as such because it would like to not be a zoo. But if we're quite honest it presently is, if one with much larger enclosures than most.

Our stop here was quick so we spotted a few Eastern Quoll- a shrew-like cousin of the Devil- and took photos for the wallabies. Then we went to go see the Devil feeding! The Unzoo has 7 Devils captive at present and it feeds them at irregular intervals, with one feeding a day being to show tourists these mini-hyenas. Today they were feeding one of the older, less dominant old males. Mostly they live a solitary life but they will work as a team on bigger carcasses. The Unzoo keeps most in pairs in large enclosures. This male, however, was often bullied by others and so didn't get enough food. So he's happily alone, this day being fed bits of wallaby, skin, meat, and bone- all of which he crunched and swallowed.

More coastal scenery- this time Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen- two large holes in the cliff where the sea had eroded one section more than others. Around here we also passed through the town of Doo.  Nearly every house here is named with a Doo based pun. Just Doo It, Scooby Doo, Doo Me, etc.

We stopped in Richmond. This area was found early in the days of the colony and has extremely fertile, dark, soil. It was settled by a good number of well to do people who managed to borrow trusted prisoners from Port Arthur to he put build the place. Everything's made out of stone, and it has Australia's oldest still functioning bridge and Catholic Church. In the centre of the town it does feel very like an old English town, maybe even Richmond in Yorkshire.

Our final stop was at the wine and oyster shop. Two neighbouring farms joined forces after tha last massive fire that swept over this part of the island. One has a vineyard, the other farms oysters. These they sell at a small cafe on top of a hill over looking the vines and the bay of oyster lines. We tried out a few of their wines and even various oysters. 

Day 104: Strahan to Launceston, Cradle Mountain in the rain

Friday 18th March

Climb to Marion Lookout in the rain

Cheese Factory on a 2000 cow dairy farm, all owned by 1 family

Distance:

Total Distance:

The main event of today was Cradle Mountain- or specifically, Marion Lookout. The mountain itself would take far longer to climb, and I would never have done it in this weather.

The drought has broken atleast for today. All night it was blowing a gale as the rain thundered down on the house. 

It more-or-less stopped for us when we got to Dove Lake. From her we were to quickly ascend to the lookout, then back down before the cloud came in. There were only 6 of us, all relatively healthy, so it didn't take long. Sadly, whilst we'd been able to see it from the lake, the mountain was completely covered in cloud by the time we got to the lookout.

On the way to Tasmania's second largest city, Launceston, we stopped for murals and some cheese. 

Sheffield is well known for its murals- it was decided by the local council as a good way to bring tourists in. They now have a mural competition every year and any wall flat wall space is painted in some way.

Then off to Tasmania's largest dairy farm. They have around 2000 dairy cows, all owned by one family. To add value they've moved into cheese making, building the Ashgrove Cheese Factory. Good cheese, even the wasabi infused cheese.

That evening I was the only one in basic tour accommodation so I got a 6 bed dorm to myself! I had a wee walk around town, chatted to a few people, then found some decent Pad Thai for dinner.

Day 100: South of Hobart- Trees, Timber, Hot Spring, and Caves

Monday 14th March

Huon River, township, valley, forest

Skytrack amongst the trees

Tallest flowering tree in the world, Eukalyptus Red Gum

Cabbage leafed pine

Selective timber felling

Modern problems with Tasmanian timber trade

Hot springs for lunch, wee walk then swim

Hastings Caves, old Precambrian dolerite (like limestone with magnesium in it) no fossils. Shallow, 20m, under rainforest, grows and changes quickly, few floods, tiny river

100th night on the road!

Distance:

Total Distance:

Today began with a new tour company. However, unlike my other tours we wouldn't, initially be going from one place to another. Instead my first two days will be centred around Hobart. Today we were off to the far south. Once it was all virgin forest. Much of this was cut down and replaced with orchards, making Tazmania the "Apple Island". This didn't last though with supermarkets altering the restrictions and requirements. There are still a few orchards, but also cherry tree orchards plus cattle and sheep farms.

We got to the Huon township early in the morning. This area was named after the middle name of a naval captain from Brittany, France, who landed here in the early days of western exploration. The valley, river, township, forest, and a few trees now bear his name. From the township we turned off towards his forest to go find some of his trees.

Tasmania, like much of Australia and New Zealand, has a history of timber. Initially this was selective logging, only taking the very best which had to be hauled out of the forest. This had the benefit of leaving some of the oldest, slightly rotten, trees, and the youngest which would become regrowth. 

What followed resulted in much more debate. Tasmania is one of the few places in the world to still be cutting down its native forest. They do have vast tracts of land set aside as national park, about a third of the entire island, so the ecosystem is relatively safe. Yet they still have large areas of native tree which they have been strip felling since the late 60s. In parts this has regrown quite well but there are many slow growing species struggling to return. Hence there is an ongoing debate, and occasional protest, one side wanting to protect the forest, the other side wanting to protect their jobs.

The main timber company here is owned by the state of Tasmania. Over the years they've been trying to increase the amount of tourism the forest can bring. If the business from this could compete with the timber trade whilst providing jobs it might stand a chance of changing the situation. A number of projects have been tried, but only a few have been successful. The company has shrunk though, with occasionally laying off or workers. It's not easy for Tasmania to sell its wood internationally- most of e major Western nations have banned the trade in native forested timber and timber products. The future of the business isn't looking too good. As one of the major employers on the island though it would be an economic disaster if the logging simply stopped. Personally I wonder if the state government knows this can't go on forever and is going to steadily reduced the business, hoping other work will take over, as the opportunity to trade dwindles. It would seem like a smarter move, especially given that as much as the business might be struggling the island's economy and unemployment figures are not doing well. 

On a happier note we did go to see some of the tourist attractions that are actively working.

The Skytreck is a walkway in the canopy above an area of forest running next to the Huon River. From here we learnt about trees such as the Huon pine- the local tree used for EVERYTHING it would seem, particularly the local boat builders, one of the few businesses still making wooden boats. There was also the Cabbage leaf pine, a pine that unusually has broadened its spines making them into something more like leaves. And finally we saw a few of the young Red Gum Eukalyptus. These take hundreds of years to grow and most were felled in the Victorian era. Only those that appeared too old to fell and the youngest now remain. They grow tall and straight- the tallest still alive is around 99.6m high, far taller than the tallest building on the island. We didn't have time to go find this one but we did see some at over 50m high. If we're honest though, after the first 30m it's very hard from he ground to see much further up. Once old enough they will grow above the rest of the trees in the forest. This exposes them to the harsh weather so the trees must the strong enough to resist the worst of it. Hence the strong, thick, tall trees that the first colonists loved.

For lunch we went to the Hot Springs near the Hastings caves. I quickly walked around the local track to see the springs- small and no where near as hot as in New Zealand. Afterwards I jumped in for a quick dip in the swimming pool of spring water. It's small, busy, and about 20'C. Nice, but no NZ. I'm sure it feels much better on a cold day though- we had overcast weather, but still warm.

Afterwards we were off up the road to the Hastings Caves.

 During the felling of trees in the days of the colony they found the tall, thick trees the world wanted. Rather than cutting through the wide base steps were cut in the base and four men placed ledges around the point where the trunk started to narrow, about 2-4m up. From here they'd cut away until the tree started to fall. They wouldn't be entirely too sure which way it would go, so time to jump down and run and hide. So much for health and safety.

During one such felling the men managed to find a cave to hide in. No one had noticed it before and they had to come back later with lanterns to discover that the cave ran deep and grew into a great many chambers filled with geological structures formed as water from the rainforest above flowed through the dolerite.

One small problem though. Companies were granted access to specific pieces of land where they could fell. Often these areas would border one another in places deep in the forest. Who would know if the workers occasionally stepped over a border for a particularly profitably specimen? This is what had happened on that day- the men were not supposed to be in the area where the cave was!

The cave was a local secret for years until it was eventually opened as a tourist attraction. Even then it took days of travel through the bush to get to it. It wasn't until after the Great War, with returned servicemen needing jobs, that the government funded the building of a road to the area. Stairs down into the caves were added, as were oil lamps.

During these early days people carved graffiti into the rocks and took souvenirs by snapping off rock formations. Much of this damage can still be seen today. However the roof is around 20m below the ground level- in some places less. This means that, in conjunction with the amount of rain that falls here, the formations here are some of the fastest changing in the world. Our guide very jubilantly informed us that one of the pleasures in coming in here is how often features grow and change.

The features themselves are numerous, and similar to what I've blogged previously- though these were significantly more numerous and spectacular. As well as stalactites and stalagmites, some having fused into columns, there were fantastically long "straws" of mineral, flow stone, knobbly features that looked like pipe organs and rock formed into pockets by dripping water, making slippery puddles. From time to time the cave can flood, so there are a few branches lying around and atop formations, as well as a tide mark formed by the mud which flowed through the cave. There is a very small stream in the cave where much of the dripping water descends to. This flows down from the mouth and down into the rock.

It's unknown if the native people ever came here. With the changing in the rock any evidence could have been washed way. But also the cave is incredibly deep. Having passed into the mouth, through stoat iron gates, we met a steel fence. Beyond this the floor falls away. We were stood on the top a a large cliff, maybe 30ft high. Other than the modern stairs there's no obvious way down- the original European explorers climbed down with ropes. It would have been possible but both dangerous, and of relatively little value, for the Aboriginal people to have come in here.

Once onto this level we followed paths and stairs through around 5 large chambers with a different combination of features within each. These ranged from the size of a large house to a master bedroom.

That nigh was spent at the Tassie Backpackers in Hobart- possibly one of the worst hostels I've stayed in! But the beds were good, so night 100 of travelling wasn't all bad.