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 81, 82, & 83: Sailing the Whitsundays

Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th, Friday 26th, February 

Took boat out sailing, no swimming, just chilling

Nachos

Distance:

Total Distance:

For two nights we lived aboard the British Defender, an ex-racing yacht.

We arrived at the quay mid afternoon. Thus our first day was a short one on our yacht. Sails were hoisted up the mast, volunteers helping by manning the winches. Under sail power we steadily moved out into the islands.

The Whitsundays sit at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. They are each green forested islands with coves, beaches, and surrounded by reefs. That night we would be staying in one of the coves. However, as with the following night, no swimming was allowed. The currents can run fast and aren't obvious. Though being swept away turns out to be just one more potentially lethal risk in these waters.

From the galley nachos appeared. We busily put them away as the rain closed in. Once it had fully arrived though canvas had been spread out from the boom (horizontal bit that sticks out of the mast). We were in a giant swag! After last night we made a few jokes as we ate the rest of dinner.

The next morning we set sail for Whitehaven cove. Here the sand is insanely pure. It's perfectly white. It reflects nearly all of the sun's heat, leaving it constantly cool, whilst threatening to tan your chin. This is due in part due to the singular source of the sand. A pure granite under the water that has been eroded away to form all the sand. This has been followed by thousands of years of washing of the sands by the sea removing impurities. The sands are shifted every day- no two trips here are the same.

This is also a sight for juvenile sharks, sting rays, and turtles. We saw one turtle as we moored on the far side of the island. At Whitehaven itself we saw one large sting ray-someone nearly stood on it despite our best efforts to ensure everything heard us coming. There were also a number of lemon sharks- so called due to their yellow colouring. Don't worry, they're less than a metre in length.

We were also, sort of, watching out for jellyfish. 

After the mandatory human pyramid, being cleaned with the world's purest sand, and checking out the little hidden beach, we got rain! It didn't last long. Just enough to make us retreat back to our depot of packs and gear. Group photo. Find the two absentees. Back to boat we go.

That afternoon I got to try out something I've been wanting to do for years. Most of the group went out snorkelling. Doing this was cheaper (gear was on our yacht) and gave them more time in the water. But I wanted to try out Scuba diving. An introductory course to try it out is being run by a company in the islands. We took mini British Defender over to their boat. It was filled with tanks and apparatus. Time to   become a dolphin. 

Jumping in involved standing on a small ledge of steel overhanging the watery abyss. Which worryingly reminded me of Bungy jumping . But without the plummet of 134m into a rocky stream. Which was nice.

Some people struggled with the fact that we had to solely breath through our mouths. It took some getting used to. I'm not sure I was doing it right- slow steady in, slow steady out. Like meditative breathing. However, I did have some buoyancy issues. As in my feet were at a level with everyone else's heads. We sort of solved this by the instructor putting a large camera in my pocket. Wasn't perfect though. I'll ask for more weights next time- I was on +8kg this time.

The visibility here isn't great at this time of year. The currents are wrong and there's lots of plankton in the area. Still it was an opportunity to try it out, whilst seeing the reef. We did see a lot of fish, some less than technicolour coral, but nothing too dangerous. I'd love to do a proper training course and be able to come back and see more of the reef. It gets much better as one travels further into it, apparently. Maybe another year.

That evening we had a costume party. We'd bought lots of fluorescent clothes, glow sticks, and I both a knock off lightsaber. Wonder what e other boats in the bay thought of us? Light show, loud music, some seamanly drinking. We had a great time of it. Then the yoga mats wre brought out and a few of us set up to sleep on the deck under the stars.

In the morning the boat set off, despite a lack of wind, bright and early. It was our last morning. We were set to make it count.

Being at the southern extent of the Great Barrier Reef there's some excellent spots for snorkelling. Having been to just one yesterday it would be a sate not to go to another. Turtles, parrotfish, soft coral, hard coral, and a multitude of tiny fish. All out by a sandy peninsula. 

Why did we have to leave for Ailisle Beach???

The afternoon was free. We slept, did laundry, hunted for wifi, and ran between the wonderful cover of air con. It was a humid 38C. What fun we had.

The hostel was an interesting cooperative resort run jointly by two of Austrilasia's largest hostel companies. Base and Nomads run nearly all of the larger hostels I've had to stay at- some are amazing and characterful, some are huge and sterile. In this one there were a number of little houses, seperated into apartments, each with a patio or balcony. There were a number of small pools, birds and flying foxes hanging around, the odd gecko feeding of the insects. If it wasn't for the heat it would be a lovely place.

We left at 4:20am...Day 84 was terrible....