Salamanca Market, our last day in Tasmania.

May 19 Salamanca Market

Our camp at Mt. Field was only a little over an hour from Hobart, so we took advantage of that fact to go into the special Saturday market there on Salamanca Street. It is down near the harbor.  Bob got to take more photos of sailing ships !! 

Salamanca Market is a combination farmer's market, arts and crafts fair, food court with lots of different kinds of live entertainment. Many of the crafts people are local with local products.

We loved all the wood. Bob bought himself several nice items from two different old Tassie woodturners. I was taken by all the local wool (no big surprise with all the sheep we saw) and other lovely handcrafted fare. We wandered through the whole thing buying gifts for family and friends.

Lunchtime found us over at the fish markets nearby sampling more of the Tasmanian oysters, we each ate a  juicy dozen. Two more stops, one for local whiskey available only on the Oz mainland(so smooth, ed.) and one at a bakery I had seen during our last trip to Hobart for dinner fare. It was time to head back to Mt. Field before it got dark and the pademelons came out on the highway. There is an amazing amount of roadkill on the roads here, Bob did not want to add to the slaughter.

Back at camp we grabbed our headlamps, which we could not use as we approached the bugs because it would turn them off thinking it was daylight, and headed for the short hike to Russell Falls. At night you can see glow worms, which are actually fly larva that are bioluminescent to attract their prey to their sticky webs.

On the way back we were treated to a new bird sighting, the nocturnal Tawny Frogmouth !! It was quite large.
Our food from the fancy Hobart bakery made a lovely last dinner in Tassie. Smoked salmon and caramelized onion quiche, asparagus and gruyere quiche and a roasted veggie and rice salad, yum !! For dessert I had a huge pistachio rosewater meringue.

May 20
Bob woke up early and went out to hunt for animals on our last day in Tasmania. As dawn he was treated to the serenade of a kookaburra. Their sound is truly unique and complex and they deserve their full name Laughing Kookaburra !! We did a quick hike back to Russell Falls to see it in the daylight.

It was bittersweet to turn in our camper and eventually arrive at the Hobart airport. We had one close call when the main bridge across the Derwent River was closed for a foot race of some kind. Luckily we could follow the flow of other cars detouring to another bridge that would get us to the airport. Hobart Airport was small and dingy.

Arriving in Melbourne was a bit of culture shock after the wild and wonderful national parks of Tasmania. We took a shuttle to our hotel right next to Victoria Market in the city center. After a refreshing shower we headed to the market in search of dinner.

Queen Victoria Market has been around since 1878, it is mostly enclosed halls of seafood, meats, dairy and prepared foods. Roofed but open air structures hold both organic and commercial fruits and vegetables and beyond them were halls of trashy clothes, souvenirs and other stuff all probably made in China.
We started with a dozen oysters to fortify us before we walked the rest of the market and eventually we purchased some tasty deli fare, tabouli, marinated mushroom, stuffed peppers, cheeses and bread and sweets( great almond macaroons and a fudgy brownie).

We took this back to our room then headed out to find a park with a view called Flagstaff Park, near our hotel. Besides the view we found a large lawn bowling club and enjoyed watching a dozen folks play.

Final bird list update from Taz:

Wedge Tailed Eagle
Brown Falcon
Tasmanian Native Hen
Galah
Green Rosella
Kookaburra, Laughing
Tawny Frogmouth
Pink Robin (not our kind of robin)
Flame Robin (yeah, not the same family as ours)
Scarlet Robin (yet again, not a thrush)
Dusky Robin
Satin Flycatcher
Yellow Wattlebird
Little Pied Cormorant
Magpie Lark
Black Currawong
Grey Currawong
Tasmanian Magpie
Common Blackbird