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

Strolling with Quolls

May 17: Strolling with Quolls !!
We were sad to leave Cradle Mountain but excited about our next destination Lake St. Clair at the other end of the national park. As we were leaving the camp park I spotted several big white cockatoos in the tree and Bob spotted three Kookaburra.
We drove on small windy mountain roads to the mining town of Queenstown looking to re-provision and have a coffee/tea break. This town reminded Bob of many other small mining towns in the Colorado Rockies in the 1960's. It was somewhat dilapidated with some rough edges.

The people were friendly and not used to foreigners. At the local bottle shop ( liquor store) the owner accosted us outside the front door with questions about where we were from and what we did for a living. We stopped at a butcher shop to buy some bangers and once he heard us speak the butcher came out for a chat. He said he heard unusual accents and had to investigate. We had a nice chat with he and his wife, they told us to be sure to see Nelson Falls on our drive to the lake. We did and were so glad. The walk through the ferny forest was great, the fern trees huge and of course moss and fungi everywhere.

As we were searching for  a lunch spot I tried out the potato chips I had purchased at the IGA in Queenstown, they claimed to be "flamed grilled steak" flavored. They were new and unique taste experience, true to their claim !!
We lunched at the Great Divide between the mountains to the east and those to the west. Have I mentioned how much we enjoy the Tasmania cheeses ?? We had another variety for a classic lunch of local cheese, crackers and apples ( local Galas).
By midafternoon we had made it to our destination of Lake St. Clair. We took a short stroll before checking out our campsite and were treated to a quoll sighting !! I chased it into the brush hoping for photo, no luck until we were walking back near the same spot, another quoll  appreared!! This one was out in the open obviously hunting for something to eat. This time I was able to get a couple of very nice photos !! I was soooo excited to see quoll in the wild like that.

Once we parked the camper we walked around some more looking for animals as the sunset, no luck. The cafe was open for dinner, we have found they often close at 5:00 so this was a treat. Hearty soup and prawns over rice left us very replete and ready to call it a day. We have a week left on our adventure, hooray !!

May 18: Bangers for Dinner
The sunrise was beautiful on Lake St. Clair as Bob had his breakfast in the company of a pademelon and  the birds began their morning chorus.

We got an early start on our drive to Mt. Field , the oldest national park in Tasmania( 1885), only about an hour from Hobart. As always the roads were small, windy and empty of cars. The sky was grey with occasional showers, the clouds moving by quickly. We drove through huge hydroelectric projects interspersed with quaint and not so quaint towns. It seems that this time of year some towns are closed for the season. We did chance upon a picturesque church just outside of Gretna, we stopped and took lots of photos of the various headstones.

 We found a cafe open in Westerway called the Possum's Shed, it was very cute inside and located right on the Tyenna river.They even claim to have their own platypus which they named "Flossy". Bob had his usual "long black" and I my "chai latte".
We also shared a piece of very tasty almond coconut cake in orange syrup served with cream. It was moist and tasty without being too sweet.

At Mt. Fields we paid for our campsite and took off for the 30 minute drive up a very small dirt road to a series of alpine lakes, hikes and the only "ski area" in southern Tasmania (it had one rope tow). We enjoyed our picnic lunch in the A frame "emergency shelter", one hiker we spoke with called the recent weather up in these mountains "evil". We took a short hike around Lake Dobson, part of it in the strange pandani , and pencil pine forest.

 Back down the road we took another great short hike into the "Tall Trees", these giant swamp gum trees are the tallest flowering plants in the world. They are second in size only to our own redwoods. The walk took us through more primordial fern grottos, with the loud raucous calls of the sulphur crested cockatoos overhead. We felt we had stumbled into a scene from the Cretaceous Period.

We are camped right on the Tyenna River, and the amenities are quite good. While I did laundry, Bob worked on cooking our bangers (sausages) on the electric grill provided in open air kitchen.

We met two brothers born in Tasmania but living in Adelaide, Bob had a nice chat with them after dinner. They were researching the history of their father's life as a millwright in the nearby Huon Valley.

Cradle Mountain !!

May 15 Cradle Mountain hike around Dove Lake.
Those Tassies are smart to have shuttles running into this amazing World Heritage National Park. We started our day with a hike around Dove Lake, the weather was a bit cloudy and some of the trails were more like small streams. The views were spectacular of Dove Lake and the iconic Cradle Mountain.
This was the area Genna visited when she was in Australia with UC Davis in July of 2009. She spent a long weekend at Cradle Mountain, her photos and glowing report of the animals were part of the stimulation for our trip.

The forests here are so different from our own, full of gums trees, odd pines, beeches and lots of moss, lichen and fungus.

More wombats greeted us on the walkway as we headed to find Waldheim Cabin very rustic cottage built by the John Muir of Cradle Mountain, Gustav Weindorfer in the early 1900's. We could imagine the hobbits as we explored the mossy forest around Waldheim.

The interpretive center was curiously deserted but worthwhile once we found a very strange art exhibit of paintings of Tasmanian Devils in different famous styles and motifs.

As we were turning in the for the night two brush-tail possums were having a row just outside our camper. In fact as I was trying photograph them Bob was concerned that they would join us inside !!

May 16 Cradle Mountain day 2

This morning we were so lucky to have a clear day when we arrived at Dove Lake. The reflections of the mountains in the lake were exquisite, many photos were taken. To crown the beginning of our day, I spotted a platypus swimming around the lake. WooHoo !!  We decided to hike the lake circuit  the other direction, the trail was icy in spots but less like a stream today.

We lunched at Ronny Creek on amazing blue cheese and our last apple from Launceston, the currawongs were cheeky and lurked at a close distance.
Our afternoon walk was down the boardwalk trail  to the visitor/interpretive center.

 

The many changes in eco-systems were dramatic.

Once back to the park we availed ourselves of the large communal building to enjoy their large fireplace and use their tables and power outlet for camera and blogging.

Fresh Oysters and Tasmanian Devils !!

May 13
After breakfast at the Barkmill in Swansea we spent two hours in a backpacker lodge using their wifi to upload photos, and text to Facebook and my blog. The connection was so slow it took a hour just to upload about 20 photos, granted I was looking on FB and trying to do email and make plane reservations at the same time. Since there was only the one computer Bob was on his own for entertainment. He ended up listening the  at times  tawdry life story of the Tassie proprietor of the lodge...poor Bob.
Finally we were off toward our destination of Freycinet NP on the Freycinet Peninsula, next to Oyster Bay. We drove through some beautiful wine country and stopped at Freycinet Winery so Bob could get a bottle of their wine as part of his exploration of the different wines of Tasmania.

Soon after that a sign for a "marine farm " caught our attention. Before we left on this trip Bob had been extolling the oyster farms of Tasmania, we were finally going to get to try them !! The woman in the little oyster shack was surprised when we came back for our second dozen about 5 minutes after we bought our first dozen. They were so tasty, that salty, ocean flavor that comes from no other food on the planet.

Our next  stop was Cole's Bay where the ocean was whipping up a frenzy of force 5 winds and you could tell we are close to the Tasman Sea. 
Bob enjoyed taking photos of the waves breaking over the jetty and the boats being tossed about. We headed on to the visitor center at Freycinet National Park where we would spent our next night. The wind was an amazing force, it's hard to describe how strong it was, what a presence it has in this part of the world. It gives you an understanding of the term "The Roaring 40's" , Tasmania is one of the only bits of habitable land in the southern 40 to 50 degrees of latitude.

Once we drove to our "powered" campsite,(we can literally plug in our van to use all the electricity we want, for the heater, toaster, microwave etc...) we bundled up for an evening stroll. The park ranger assured us we would see lots of animals at dusk.
While the wind whipped around us and the clouds misted us with a few showers we made our way to Freycinet Lodge about a mile from our van. We didn't see a single animal but the sunset from the lodge deck was spectacular. The bistro there provided us with dinner, two "toasted wraps" with a mix of meat, vegetables and interesting condiments. We walked back in the dark with still no animals in sight.  The storm had driven them all to ground.
Back at camp  the rain got more serious and we were lulled to sleep by the swaying of our van in the wind.

May 14

Our plan for today was to head fairly directly to Cradle Mountain...yeah right. Bob said "oh let's just take this route on up the coast" and "oh let's just drive down this road to Douglas Apsley National Park"...you get the picture. We found a very picturesque overgrown churchyard and once again enjoyed the beautiful trees that are changing color.

We stopped at Ashgrove cheese factory as well. The grounds are dotted with life size cows that have been painted in every imaginable pattern.

The shop stocked a lot of local Tassie products besides all their own cheeses. We bought a nice selection and continued our drive toward Cradle Mountain. The roads got smaller and windier the closer we got and then we began to see snow on the ground, a fare amount of it, brrrr. In the  parking lot of the visitor center four young Asian tourist were having an hilarious snowball fight. And a currawong tried to get in our car, facing off with Bob at his window.

After paying for our powered spot at the nearby caravan park, we bundled up and drove to the nearby Tasmania Devil sanctuary, called Devils@Cradle for their evening feeding tour. We were there a bit early so we were able to look around all the enclosures at the devils and the quolls. Quolls are a small marsupial carnivore, that  resemble something out of Dr. Seuss with their dark coats and white spots.

Our tour began inside with a very good presentation on Tasmanian Devils and the problems they face these days mostly due to a devastating disease. Our tour guide was a scientist and very well versed in his subject. Before we went outside for the feeding he brought one of the young devils in for us to see and actually gently touch. We had to be very quiet and hold very still has they spook easily, their fur is surprisingly soft. Outside it was fun to watch them feed on the wallaby haunch the guide gave them. They are solitary but not territorial and most of their vocalizations are just their way of working things out. They are not as aggressive as they have been portrayed. We got to see the quolls feeding as well, both these kinds of carnivores are very active at night . There was snowy slush all over the ground which made it cold going. As the tour ended we were glad to be getting back into our warm dry camper for the night.

From North to South, Port Sorell to Hobart

May 11
We awoke to another  clear but cool day in Port Sorell. After some discussion with our charming host, Bob decided on an adventurous route down the middle of the island  to our destination of Hobart, capital of Tasmania. The road took us over a mountain pass with rain and even slushy snow at the highest point, it was full of huge fern trees, eucalyptus and views of the Great Lake. The road was slow and windy but very scenic, we were very hungry by the time we came to a town with any amenities. Bothwell seemed promising and a cute place called the Bothwell Grange had a sign offering lunch.

 We should have turned around an left as soon as we entered this pathetic excuse for a pub. Two young women stared at us as we entered, giving single syllable answers to our questions. We looked at the menu board, how bad could a "Grange burger" be ???....very bad. When our "burgers" arrived we could not determine what they were, chicken, fish, something very dead and very deep fried. I managed a few bits , Bob choked down most of his out of desperation.

Back on the road we were treated to beautiful rainbows as it continued to shower off and on. We reached Hobart, check into out our hotel with it's great views and immediately headed down to the old harbor to explore.

To Bob's delight there were ships of all kinds, including a huge orange ice breaker.
 Turns out all the Antarctic explorers began their journeys in Hobart.

The wind made it feel like the Antarctic as checked out the area that would the next morning be the site of Hobart's famed Salamanca Market. The Salamanca Fruit Market had me salivating and excited to be shopping there the next day for provisions for our camping trip. We walked around looking for a dining experience to erase the bad taste of lunch.
Bob was drawn to one place called the Drunken Admiral, it looked touristy to me and sure enough as we headed over there later to try our luck a huge tour bus  had just dis-engorged it's passengers there. Instead we headed back to a more subtle looking place call the Mill. It was empty when we first got there but soon filled up and it's menu was both fun and intriguing, dishes of different prices that came in no set order. We enjoyed a smoked fish chowder, fish in butter sorrel sauce, spinach salad with roasted pumpkin, a tender mussels cooked in a dark ale and a strawberry sundae made with crisp meringues and sheep milk vanilla ice cream. Yum, this meal made up for the disaster of our lunch experience.

May 12
This was a day of transition for us, we were turning in our little rental car and switching to a camper van for the tassie camping experience. It was not the smoothest of transitions as the camper place by the airport was tough to find and under staffed, the weather windy, rainy, bitingly cold and the van, a manual transmission. Eventually we were on our way up the eastern coast after a smashingly good lunch at a bakery in Sorell. Bob ordered a hamburger with "the lot", turns out it had a fried egg, bacon, sausage patty, as well as the beef patty,tomatoes, lettuce and bun. I chose the featured curried scallop pie, very tasty.

We slowly wound our way up through the countryside to Mayfield Beach Conservation Area for the night. The beach was picturesque, the sound of the waves thundering and the sunset beautiful. After a chilly stroll along the beach we spent the evening getting acquainted with our camper van.

Narawntapu

May 9
We left Launceston with the plan to make a leisurely wide loop to our next destination Port Sorell on the Bass Strait,  right  across the Rubicon River from Narawntapu National Park. We had read on Trip Advisor about people walking with wombats there.

Westbury church.

The countryside was beautiful, rolling green hills, lots of sheep and cows grazing, very bucolic. The town names all sounded like they could be somewhere in the British countryside: Westbury, Deloraine, Chudleigh, Sheffield...We saw charming old churches, one town boasted many murals, another was "known" for it's topiary and a third had a gentleman sitting on the main street with his alpaca on a leash ( he charged $2 to take his photo so Bob just chatted with him a bit).

One of many murals in Sheffield.

We had breakfast on the road at Deloraine, I had the best BLT I have ever had, sigh. Bob was pleased with a real cup of coffee after suffering with the instant offered at all of our lodging so far.

We eventually headed north through thick ferny forests of spruce and eucalyptus, over the Gog Range to more fields of fat sheep, vineyards, hay fields, and orchards of apples and pears.

Once we got to Port Sorell, we realized we had not written down the address of our lodging, it was stored on the computer which didn't do us much good at this point. Luckily every little town in Tassie has an information center, prominently marked with a large yellow "I". They are often in some kind of business establishment and usually have lots of free brochures, souvenirs for sale and a volunteer who will help you out. We found the "I" which seemed to be in the police station...turns out it was next door but the Tassie policeman wanted to help us himself. He got on the computer and found the address to our lodging. He assured us we would see plenty of wombats in the national park.

Sails on Point Sorell is a cute " boutique apartment" with a kitchenette/dining room and bedroom. The owners were very friendly and chatty. The provisions made Bob happy, real coffee with a french press and homemade welcome cookies.
But we didn't dally for long. We were on a mission to see those wombats before it got dark. We drove the 30 minutes to the Narawntapu through light rain showers. Sure enough as we drove up to the visitor center, there were the wombats grazing on the huge meadows, with grass so short  they resembled putting greens.

We were finally walking with wombats !!! They seemed not to care too much that we were there, if you moved too quickly they did startle. We took a path into the swampy paperwood forest, and soon began to see many small marsupials called pademelons.They were doing their best to get out of our way on the trail along with an occasional wombat.  Some were jumping on each other, vocalizing and running in circles chasing one another when they deemed us harmless. One sat close by us and studied us in detail before going to "play" with it's mates. We saw wallabies , too they were more skittish of us than the wombats and pademelons.  They would freeze in the brush except for their ears which were listening in different directions as they "froze".
With darkness upon us we headed very carefully back down the road as all these critters are nocturnal and not very smart , evident by all the marsupial roadkill we had witnessed.
Back in Port Sorell we had our first Tassie IGA ( grocery store) experience. We were pleased to see so many products that were made in Tasmania. We bought provisions for breakfast: local yogurt, honey and hearty bread for toast and lunch: more local cheese, smoked salmon and Turkish flatbread, again all form this island.
Dinner was nothing to write home about so I won't. Our one complaint of this town it that there are no decent restaurant.


May 10
This morning we breakfasted on the local fare purchased the night before, then headed out for a full day at Narawntapu Nartional Park.The day was a beauty, clear skies and sunshine !!
As we drove into the park we heard loud squawking and saw very large black birds in the nearby trees. They were a large flock of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos. We have noticed that all the birds in Oz and Tassie are loud and noisy.
 Once inside the park we began by exploring the various roads and camping areas by the ocean. We walked out to Griffin Point where the view of the vast empty beaches and coastline was breathtaking. It was low tide so we enjoyed the rocks and tide pools full of crabs, mussels and other sea life.
Next we decided to hike up to Archer's Knob as the park brochure assured us the view would be amazing. The hike lead us through paperwood forests, ferny brush and obvious animal trails everywhere. They were right, the view was spectacular and well worth the effort. Our hike back was along Baker's Beach, with lots of fun shells to collect, dead things to inspect and more amazing views of the ocean.

We concluded our day back at the visitor's center for another chance to walk with wombats. Actually we had a our picnic lunch,  while watching the wombats graze.We were delighted to find a mother and her young grazing side by side, so cute.

 After lunch we walked across a vast meadow to see a herd of Forester Kangaroos. They are quite large and were not very pleased to see us coming toward them. They were amazing to watch as they hopped away, most of the animals here hop ;-)
We took one last short hike to see more pademelons and wallabies, we added another animal to our list, the water rat, it is cooler than it sounds. Bob was very clear he wanted to drive back in the daylight, so off we went.

Grazing pademelon.

Tomorrow we head for Hobart, and the next chapter for our journey.

Launceston, Tasmania

May 7
On Monday , we left Sydney, the big city. We took the subway out to the airport and boarded a small plane for Launceston, Tasmania. Launceston is the second largest city  with about 100,000 people, located on the northern side of  the island. The airport was small and easy to negotiate, we got our luggage and rented a tiny black car. Due to the weather forecast of rain showers most of the week, we decided to tour the north part of the island by car, staying in hotels instead of our original plan to camp. Next week looks drier and we hope to give it a go then.
Bob was very brave to start our driving on "the wrong side", we both would chant "white line to the right"  to keep him on the correct side of the road. The turn signal is also on the right side of the steering wheel and the wipers on the left. Bob was constantly signaling to turn with his wipers.
Our first stop in Launceston was the information center where we were guided to the Auldington Hotel on a slight rise above the city. We looked at several rooms, the one on the third floor with huge windows, balcony and views of the city won immediately.

While I rested, Bob went out exploring. His mission was to find some sort of takeway food for a picnic supper in our room. Bob quizzed the hotel staff about the best place to find local cheeses and wines, they were very pleased by his request and sent him to Davies, a gas station/ deli. It was set up like a convenience store yet it held an amazing selection of locally made cheeses, fresh bread,deli items and local wines. They even gave him a wine tasting to help him make a decision, the cheapest bottle of wine was $23. AUD. He came back with a soft goat cheese, a  water buffalo feta and a camembert, a loaf of crusty bread and a spinach salad with roasted pumpkin and sundried tomatoes...so gourmet, what a feast !!

May 8
Our hotel did not offer a free continental breakfast, so we walked a block down the hill to Cuccina Cafe where we both enjoyed a hot breakfast. Both our selections offered " Cuccina relish on the side", it turned out to be a homemade catsup with chunks of onions, very tasty.

Bob's breakfast wrap with homemade relish.

On our stroll back we indulged in a little urban foraging, there was a Granny Smith apple tree behind our hotel and a lemon tree in front.
Our plan for the day was to drive north along the Tamar River toward the ocean, stopping wherever we liked. We only made it 11 kilometers out of town before we discovered the Tamar Island Wetlands. What a great place for bird watching, we added numerous new birds to our list and spent a relaxed couple of hours strolling along the walkways to and from Tamar Island.

We saw huge flocks of native black swans, purple swamphens, chestnut teals (ducks), lapwings, superb blue fairy wrens ( I kid you not, that is what they are called) and grey fantails. It was a birder's paradise !!
We eventually made it to Beaconsfield, a very cute little mining town, for tea, coffee and pastries.

Across the river at Batman's Bridge ( cricket not comic) and back down the other side of the Tamar River to Launceston. Another picnic for dinner. Tomorrow we plan to leave this charming town for.... stay tuned to find out.

Bird list for the day:
Little Black Cormorant
Great Egret
White Faced Heron
Black Swan
Chestnut Teal
Pacific Gull
Purple Swamphen
Green Rosella
Welcome Swallow
Grey Fantail
Superb Blue Fairy Wren
New Holland Honeyeater
European Goldfinch
Forest Ravens
Common Blackbird