Trip 55, part 6 - Hobart and surrounds

Before moving on to Hobart we checked out our camping options as we were going to be there over the Easter long weekend and the local caravan parks are expensive at $60 to $70 per night. We were thinking of staying at the Hobart Showgrounds, but even that is $45 a night and we’d heard it is packed tight with campers. So, after a bit of WikiCamp’ing we found Phil’s Place, about 18km north of the city, but on a main arterial road and bus route, Phil’s Place is costing us just $20/night, and best of all they only accept up to six vans at a time and there’s plenty of space between us.

The approximate route map for this post. The red lines indicate our flights out to and from Melaleuca, with the blue loop at the end (bottom left) our boat cruise through and out of Bathurst Harbour

Arriving on a Friday afternoon, we setup and then shot off to top up the diesel with the cheapest fuel we could find, which was $309.9 and has continued to rise since.

Goldy parked up at Phil’s Place, north of Hobart with sunset fire over the hills in the distance – photo credit Jules

Saturday morning dawned and we caught the MetroTas bus into the city which took us on a bit of a tour through some of the northern burbs as the express buses don’t run on the weekend. However, this was a great way of seeing some of the suburbs. Some of which seemed a bit lower socio-economic and a few of our fellow bus patrons looked pretty yocal. But, there was no hassles on the trip, and one yocal totally surprised us by being the first person to jump up and help an old lady onto the bus, which was really respectful and nice to see.

We then spent the morning browsing the Salamanca Markets, which were absolutely heaving with people, before grabbing a pint at an Irish Pub and then exploring the little galleries and studios in the historic buildings aside the markets.

The following day, being Sunday the 29th March, we drove out to Mt Field National Park and really enjoyed the 6km Three Falls Walk. Starting at Russell Falls, then Horseshoe Falls, then through the beautiful Tall Trees forest section and finishing with Lady Barron Falls, before returning to the visitors centre and trail start. A great walk through lovely countryside, but we didn’t enjoy the first lot of 200 steps, which was then followed up with another 239 steps we had to do at the start and the end of the walk. We survived though, albeit a little breathless at times.

Russell Falls is huge and the larger part of the falls can just be seen at the top section of this photo. From the viewing platform you can’t really get a decent angle to get the whole falls in shot.

A close up of the bottom section of Russell Falls

Spotting credit to Jules here – this was a cut away Tree Fern stump and the core of stump had these great shapes and colours in it

Jules found (but didn’t share and tell me) this cool looking bark – photo credit Jules

Following the Three Falls walk, we drove out to Junee Caves State Reserve and absolutely loved the less managed, more natural walk along the Junee River, up to the Junee Cave, which is the source of the Junee River as it gushes out of the 30km long limestone kart system the Junee Cave is part of. The Junee Cave and river source were very difficult to photograph, but it was a really enjoyable walk and it was also the first river in Tas in which we saw and observed wild trout swimming around which was pretty cool.

Jules looking into Junee Cave and the river gushing out from the cave

A section of the Junee River with moss and lichen covered logs

On the way back to camp we popped up to the Pulpit Rock Lookout in New Norfolk which gives a great view up and down the ponderous Derwent River.

Looking down the Derwent River from the Pulpit Rock Lookout

Now dear reader – the observant, or stalker, among you may have noticed that I’d let my facial hairs go a bit feral lately, as I’ve tried – for the first time in my life I might add – to grow a full and luxurious man beard, as opposed to my usual 3mm short crop beard. So after a month of carefully cultivating and nurturing my face pubes, I did some pre-googling and booked myself into my first barbers appointment with a Beardologist. My chosen Beardologist was Lee Power, owner and Tassie’s self-proclaimed best barber of Lost Paradise, a quirky but really cool barber shop in the Hobart CBD.

So with a pre-booked appointment to meet, we bussed back into Hobart on Monday morning, this time on the express bus and also happily taking advantage of the new Tassie Government announced free public transport due to the petrol crisis, to meet Lee.

He was as cool, engaging and eclectic as we expected. Upon arrival he had cool Blues belting out throughout his pink parlour, but following our intro and a quick convo, he switched to Jazz, as we talked and he sheared my face. I’m not sure I’m going to keep my beard long term, i.e. post holidays, but at least now it’s sharper and cleaner, and I can walk around town without looking like Tim the Toolman from the Santa Clause movie – as Jules said I did beforehand.

The Beardologist, Lee Power, working his magic

Following my facial appointment, we spent the rest of the day a-wandering the streets of Hobart, following the more interesting paths, and indulging in the cooler things in life. This included a whisky and gin tasting at Lark Distillery, a seafood chowder and Tasmanian wine lunch at Mures on the wharf, and finally a pint at the Shipwright Arms in Battery Point, a cool pub that opened in 1845 and has managed to retain its street scape heritage, but then opens up to a heavily sailing themed public bar with a contemporary and modern restaurant downstairs.

Is this the thinnest building in Hobart?

Some wall mural art, outside the dunnies whilst I waited for Jules to do a wee. I have to admit I didn’t see the little bit of graffiti in the mural until I was processing the picture for the blog. When you see it you’ll see it.

Lark Distillery selfie whilst waiting for our drinks to arrive

Me excited and keen to get started whilst Jules takes another pic – photo credit Jules

A top shot of our drinks – photo credit Jules

Fishing boat and the well known Drunken Admiral restaurant in the distance, Hobart harbour

Leading ourselves up the garden path, on the walk to Battery Point

Vines on a wall – that’s all it is – but I like it

The Shipwright Arms which first opened its doors in 1846

Me enjoying my Cascade Stout at the Shipwright Arms – photo credit Jules

Tuesday. An earlyish start this morning, awoken by the 6am alarm, we gulped down some brekky before heading east to Port Arthur which is today’s destination.

We had planned our leaving and total journey time to precision to ensure that we’d arrive a good 15mins prior to our 9:30am scheduled Essentials Tour. However, the Dunalley swing bridge across the Denison Canal chucked a spanner in our collective works when it swung open to allow a yacht to pass up the canal and we were stuck, along with a stream of other travellers for nearly 10mins as we waited for this to finish. Despite the little delay, we made it in time for our tour and spent the next hour with Guy, our guide, who did a great job of explaining the history of the Port Arthur penal colony. We then had a few mins to grab a coffee before it was off to the ferry for a short cruise around the bay, with another history talk. It was lunchtime by the time our tours finished, so we opted for the cheap and portable options, grabbing a box of BBQ Shapes (for me) and Chicken Crimpies (for her) and proceeded to walk around the vast Port Arthur site, exploring the buildings and reading about the history, whilst munching on a box-o-lunch bikkies.

The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA) – the acronym sounds like a chest infection – do a fantastic job of maintaining the site. The gardens have all been restored and are beautifully maintained, and the historic buildings are well explained and very accessible.

Sunlight casts jail bar window shadows through the penitentiary

Looking back on the penitentiary whilst boarding the ferry

Another shot from the ferry, but this one shows the two large gums on the left hand side which were planted in the early 1800’s by the then Commandant of the penal colony

A view out across the harbour. The little island to the left is known as the Isle of the Dead as this is where over 1100 prisoners and free folk from the penal colony were buried during it’s years of operation between 1830 and 1877

The old chapel which regularly housed 1100 prisoners for the Sunday sermons

Looking down the soldiers memorial pathway

The small chapel in what is called the Separate Prison. A roundish building where new prisoners were harshly inducted into penal life. I’m standing in what is essentially an upright coffin, just big enough to stand in with a narrow viewing area out to the priest in front on you. You can’t bend down, or see your neighbours, but apparently the prisoners used to sing their guts out at hymns as they had to be completely silent for the entire rest of their time in this prison building, spending 23hrs of the day in their small cell – photo credit Jules

Having explored all the buildings we could see, and which our wittle wegs could handle, we left Port Arthur for a quick loop drive and tour of the rest of the peninsula, taking in Remarkable Cave, glimpsing a view of the dramatic organ pipe rocks of Cape Raoul, walking around the Port Arthur historic Coal Mine area and visiting the Lime Bay Camping Area. A lovely little drive, with one of the best views of the trip randomly found (it wasn’t an official lookout or view point), but the view was so wide that despite me taking seven photo’s and then stitching them into a single panoramic shot, the photo just doesn’t do the view justice. Before leaving the Tasman Peninsula we stopped in to view the famous Tessellated Pavement, an amazing and natural coastal rock formation at Eaglehawk Neck.

The little cove before arriving at the Remarkable Cave cove

Remarkable Cave, which as you can see is more of a tunnel through to the ocean

Looking out towards Cape Raoul in the distance

A zoomed in shot (800mm equivalent) of Cape Raoul and the dramatic organ pipe rock formation

The unbelievable view on the way out to the Coal Mine – the photo doesn’t do it justice

One of the old Coal mine buildings which is also part of the Port Arthur historic site

The Tessellated Pavement. Ideally you shoot this before sunrise on a low tide as you get brilliant colours reflecting in the pools of water. However, the tide was relatively high and the sun starting to set which made my photos more ‘memory pics’ than ‘memorable photos’

The Tessellated Pavement, but the gaps in this section were filled in by thousands of mussels

More Tessellated Pavement, this section had sea algae on it and I loved the cool steel blue and green colours it provided

Jules’ take on the Tessellated Pavement (I like this pic and wished I’d seen it as well, but don’t tell her I said that) – photo credit Jules

Shells at the Tessallated Pavement – photo credit Jules

To top off another great day, Google Maps took us on a circuitous route home, via Hobart and up and over the Tasman Bridge which was pretty cool, though a little hair-raising with its peak-hour direction changing lanes.

We took it easy today (Wednesday 1/4), a late start and then it was off to Lala’s Laundromat to do a shite load of washing. Then it was off to New Norfolk for a walk around in the drizzle and lunch, stopping at “The Cake Lady” cafe, based on a Google recommendation Jules had found. She makes and cooks everything and OMG I had the best Pork & Fennel Sausage Roll ever. It even beat my previous favourite from the Southern Cross servo.

My extremely yummy Pork & Fennel Sausage Roll

Inside of The Cake Lady, a retro inspired cafe.

After lunch we took a little drive out to Richmond to check out the old stone arch bridge, which is a ‘must have’ photo to any credible photographer and to view some of the cool old buildings.

A ye olde style processed pic of the 1823 Richmond Bridge

MONA – the Museum for Old and New Art. Wow, what a place! The building itself is probably worth the admission price as it’s an architectural wonderland of shapes, textures and materials, both natural and man made. Now throw in the ancient and modern art, great food and drinks and this is a tourism hotspot you’ve got to visit sometime.

Jules and I spent the day exploring and really enjoying MONA, and both agreed it was another trip highlight. And to finish of a great day, we then spent a very lovely evening with a now ex-workmate of mine, Dennis and his lovely wife Helen and their son Alex at their place, which just happened to be a couple of km from where we were camped. Dennis plied me with his home brew beer and made some absolutely fantastic pizzas in his pizza oven, whilst Helen kept stuffing home grown or made food stuffs into our doggy bag. A great night with good people.

A semi-trailer carrying a cement truck sculpture made entirely of old steel gates and wire, outside the main entrance to MONA

Jules outside MONA with views down the Derwent River towards Hobart

One of the many great art pieces at MONA

One of the cool passageways between areas within MONA

I think this was an Italian artist, but his thing is pressure and this exhibit shows a 768kg rock sitting atop a pane of thickened glass which over time is slowing flexing due to the weight. Everyone is waiting for the day the glass fractures

Another piece by the same artist, this one is a hydraulic press that incrementally increases pressure on large lengths of timber, snapping them in due course. You can see the remaining un-split logs in the foreground and the room full of fractured logs in the background

Molten steel drops from the roof onto plates of liquid and explodes into thousands of bouncing sparks. This is all viewed from behind a safety window and I used a long exposure to get this shot.

Our wines whilst waiting for our lunch to arrive. We were sitting on an antique couch and you can see a sample of the cool chair and the beautiful natural sandstone wall of the museum behind it

A him and herself reflection in a mirror with the sandstone wall behind us

There’s a whole building dedicated to a German artist and my favourite piece was the very large piece in the background, through the doorways. You’re only seeing a snippet of the art through the doors, and the total artwork size is 93m square!!

I liked this 2nd shot of the same photo, but this time with some people in it, who were more interested in their selfie against the concrete structure, than the art being displayed around them

One of the concrete doors, through the container based concrete structure. I liked the dichotomy of grey concrete against the warm light through the door. Note, this wasn’t an art piece, it was simply a door through to another part of the building dedicated to the German artist.

Jules pondering me in an art piece. The black stuff mid-left, and in fact surrounding me at waist height, is a huge bath of used engine sump oil. This room is filled to about 1m in oil, with a little walkway to a mid-point in the room where you can view the reflections

A tunnel of light which led through to a room with a bar. So, we had a buy a drink at the other end…

As we were leaving Dennis’ last night, we heard a strange whistle coming from Sir Gwavin, which continued into today as we drove around. Resolved to look into it when we got home, we spent the morning at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, which was nice, but most of the animals were nocturnal and snoozing. However, we felt good knowing our entry fee helped this self-funded wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre.

A Tiger Snake at Bonorong warming in the sun

This is a wild Eastern Rosella at Bonorong which hang around for the abundant left over food

Leaving Bonorong it was approaching lunchtime so I randomly picked a town on Google Maps we hadn’t visited yet, selecting Kempton. A nice town with lots of old character buildings but as suspected nothing was open due to it being Good Friday. The few pinic tables in Kempton were busy with families, and we ain’t got time for other people’s kids, so I found another back gravel road, up over the mountains to Elderslie. This turned out to be a lovely drive and we stopped mid-point for some lunch and quick drone flight.

On arriving back at camp, I’ve inspected Sir Gwavin and I feel reasonably confident I’ve determined the unknown whistling sound – I think it’s a split in the cold side inter-cooler hose, so tomorrow’s mission will be to source and replace it. I’ll keep you posted with my parts sourcing and mechanical repairs skills later in this blog. Fingers crossed it’s not a major problem though.

A roadside landscape taken near Kempton, but processed to look more like an oil painting

Chucking the drone up at our lunch spot, I noted this paddock with the lovely shades and textures which I think provided a great abstract pic

Trees following a ridge line, taken with the drone

View down a winding valley – drone shot.

Queue Mission Impossible music. Got it playing in your head? Good, let’s continue. After a somewhat sleepless night, trying to work out how to source the part I needed for the car and what to do if I can’t find one, I awoke this morning and jumped straight on to the blower, intending to keep calling people, including wreckers if needed, until I found the part.

First call to Autobahn down the road from where we’re camping and as nonplussed as you can be, Simone the Autobahn lady confirmed that they had one in stock and that she’d hold it for me.

Well, the sourcing of the part was a shite load easier than I thought it would be and 30mins later I was holding a $130 replacement inter-cooler hose. 30mins after that, the old hose had been replaced, confirming in the process that it did indeed have a split in it.

Now, in hindsight, I’m not sure why I had such a restless night over this, but I’m certainly glad my MacGyver Mechanic skills seem to have resolved this little issue, and Sir Gwavin is driving lovely again, with not a whistle to be heard. I’m also glad that I didn’t need to book this into a mechanic as I’d have lost a couple days waiting for them to open post Easter and also it would have likely cost me a lot more than $130 I spent to fix it.

The old and offending hose is off and now confirmed to have a split in it.

The old hose (left) lying alongside the shiny new replacement one which is all fitted.

To give Sir Gwavin a proper test, we did the run up and down the 1271m tall Mount Wellington, taking in the amazing view and marvelling at the 14C degree temperature drop from 19C at the base, to 5C on the mountain top.

View out over Hobart and the harbour from Mount Wellington – this is a 6 shot pano

View out over Hobart and the harbour from Mount Wellington – this is a 9 shot pano

And to finish our day, we did the Hobart Convict Penitentiary Ghost Tour, which was ok, but I thought it a little cliché. Then ending the evening with our first pub meal of the trip, at the Customs House Hotel, built in 1846.

The steps from the Stand, down into the convict tunnels below what is now an old magistrates court, but used to be the Convict Chapel – photo credit Jules

The gallows where 33 were hung – photo credit Jules

Easter Sunday started to the sound of the alarm, and No; the alarm wasn’t set so we could go find the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden for us. Rather, we were up early to smash some brekky down and then get out to the Cambridge Airport, which is some 30km away, by 8am for our South West Wilderness Flight and Cruise.

Having booked with Par Avion, we followed their instructions and dressed warmly with layers of clothing, including taking gloves and a warm hat. We then also took up their proffered heated windproof jacket as “it gets cold out there” they said.

Captain Gavin our pilot, boat skipper and tour guide organised us into two small 8seater planes and we were off, flying over Bruny Island and then along the south coast of Tassie on the way out, landing an hour later at the landing strip at Melaleuca.

Our little 8 seater plan. They had to split our group of 11 into two planes – photo credit Jules

Selfie aboard the plane – photo credit Jules

We were sat at the back of the plane like naughty children

Salmon farming pens just outside of Hobart

A small spit of land, separating the ocean from an inlet

I think this is the Huon River meeting the ocean

Melaleuca was first established as a gold mine, but then became a tin mine when there wasn’t sufficient gold, but has long since been abandoned and the whole area is now protected national park. The only way into Melaleuca and the Bathurst Harbour, which was our boat cruise destination, is by plane, boat or foot. There are no roads in whatsoever and the area is remote.

An important and interesting thing Captain Gav explained on our flight out is that most of Tasmania is covered in the darker coloured dolerite rock which makes up it’s mountains, however, about halfway out to Bathurst Harbour the rocks change to the much harder and whiter quartzite rock, which doesn’t hold much dirt or minerals for plants to grow in and hence whilst the dolomite mountains are heavily wooded, the quartzite mountains are mainly rocky and bare, with button grass plains in the lower valleys. This was extremely evident from the air.

We disembarked the plane to a beautiful sunny and dead still day, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The Tassie Parks camp hosts, who are based there for the hikers, said this was the nicest day they’d seen in their 6weeks stay and even Captain Gavin said he couldn’t recall the last time the conditions were so good. So, off to a great start and we soon abandoned our extra jackets – but better to have and not need, they say..

First order of the day was a morning tea of coffee, cheese and bikkies at the bird hide and small museum a short walk from the airstrip. The bird hide is setup to observe the critically endangered Orange-Bellied Parrot which only breed in this small area, but Captain Gavin advised he thought that they would have migrated away by now. Well, he was wrong and we observed 6 of the birds through a telescope in the hide which was pretty cool. Later in the day we were talking to a birdie, who’d been camped there for three weeks, observing and cataloguing the birds he saw, and he advised he thought the birds we’d observed today would be leaving that night as conditions were right.

Then it was down to the small boat and we cruised the Bathurst Harbour across the mirror flat water. Bathurst Harbour is similar in size to Sydney Harbour, but like Macquarie Harbour up near Strahan it is very heavily tannin stained.

Gavin explained that the tannins come from the 2 to 3m of rain per year, which seeps through the sparse tea trees and the metre or so of dense peat bog, before draining into the harbour. He went on to explain that due to some circumstances which I can’t recall, the fresh water that falls into the creeks and rivers can take up to 7 years to eventually make its way out to the ocean, thus the fresh water is some of the most tannin stained in the world, making the reflections fantastic.

Picture perfect reflection – but I took this shot to show the thin layer of peat bog which sits on the bedrock below. The peat bog is the thin black band above the water line.

As the conditions were so rarely good, Captain Gavin then took us down to the harbour heads at Port Davey, where we did a loop out and around the Breaksea Islands that protect the harbour entrance.

Heading out to the ocean side of the Breaksea Islands and the small swell crashing into the rocks

The Breaksea Islands, note the little cave through to the harbour side

The Breaksea Islands with another cave through the rocks

A blowhole on the lee, Harbour side, of the Breaksea Islands, caused by the swell pushing through one of those small tunnels through the rock

Then it was off to Balmoral Beach, a protected bay inside the harbour for lunch, paired with some tassie wine.

I can’t remember the name of this rock, but it was imposing as we approached our lunch stop

Looking out from the beach, through and over the tannin stained, but clear water, to the mountains in the distance

From the beach, you can pass through a short stretch of bush and pop out on this small lagoon with the mountain and its reflection just across from you

A wider, 8shot stitched pano of the beach, lagoon and mountain

Looking out from the north tip of the beach

Looking back down Balmoral Beach to our boat in the distance

Following lunch we started making our way back up the harbour towards Melaleuca, but taking a short side trip to visit the now abandoned Casey House, before re-boarding the plane and heading home, this time trekking north over the harbour, Arthur Ranges and Hobart.