Our last full day in Hobart, Tasmania! Today is Saturday, November 6 and our first destination was to the Salamanca Market, just a couple blocks from our hotel. The market is held under the huge plane trees in front of the old whaling warehouses in Salamanca Place. The market has been held every Saturday for the last twenty years or so. It boasts a wide range of crafts, books, vegetables, and ethnic stalls as well as street theater and entertainment. We browsed the stalls and found a few souveniers of Tasmania that we couldn't live without!
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| Salamanca Market held every Saturday morning |
We next walked along the wharf adjacent to the markets and inquired about the Sea Shepherds. We watch the show "Whale Wars" which is about the whale saving activist group, Sea Shepherds, who sail the Antartic Ocean to tharwt the efforts of Japanese whaling vessels. We knew they have stopped in Hobart on their journeys and inquired as to where they may have docked. We found out it was on the pier just down the street that they docked at last summer. It would have been fun if they had been in port while we were in Hobart!
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| Where the Sea Shepherds docked last summer |
In the afternoon we headed up Mount Wellington, the tallest mountain around Hobart which provides fantastic overviews of the city, harbor, and ocean. It was just a 20-minute drive from our hotel to reach the top of the mountain. Just before the summit we stopped for a short hike that climbs about 50 yards uphill before leveling off and running along the contour of the mountain. We had some beautiful views, but the hike was difficult as it was mostly navigating stepping on and over rocks from landslides. Once we decided we had gone far enough, we turned to return the same way and within 5 feet we saw a black snake. It was about 2 feet long and it had to have been about 1 inch in diameter. Well, I screamed and jumped up and down while Terry claims he was telling me to run...like I could do that over the rocks--I had all I could do to stand up and walk. It was then declared that the snake was more afraid of us than we of him (ya, right) as he quickly slithered away under the rocks. From that point on, I was very aware of every little scampering I saw on the rocks as we hiked back to the car. All we saw were geckos, which was fine with me. Australia has 23 of the 27 venomous snakes in the world.....I'm hoping this one was not one of them!
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| Our hike along the side of Mount Wellington |
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| View of Hobart from high above along the trail |
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| We made it to the top of Mt Wellington and the Visitor Center |
We continued the drive to the top of the mountain for some fantastic views. Once we were back into Hobart, we walked around St. David's Park by the harbor and watched the Salamanca Market vendors pack up their goods--selling was done for another week. St. David's Park is situated on th site of the first cemetery for the colony of Hobart Town, and has many of the tombstones of the first settlers, as well as those of some settlers who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788.
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| Relocated tombstones from early 1800's |
In the evening we returned to an Italian restaurant, Da Angelo's, that we visited the first night in Hobart. We spent the whole dinner time reminiscing over the past 6 weeks of travel. Amazingly, we could remember what we did at each location.
The last two days have been clear blue skies and wonderful temperatures in the 70's and we now must soon face the long airplane ride home and the approaching winter weather in Colorado.
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