2^nd to .3.11 Tasmania, Sulmona, Art but no Devils

We left Sydney and the Aurora with mixed feelings excited about the next stage of the trip and apprehensive about the travelling, new hotels, would the hairdryers work and catching all the connections.

The next few stages are trip round Tasmania, then back to Sydney for a week then over to Malaysia then back to England.

Me and David in the botanical Gardens with the Sydney bridge in the background.

Arriving in Tasmania

The airport is very small and we were surprised and did a double take to see the luggage belt with a full size seal.

The past few days have disappeared so need to catch up, unfortunately again getting dresses has not been easy so am stretching the definition a bit for the time being.

We stayed in Hobart

For a couple of nights, Hobart is the capital of Tasmania, we are now becoming familiar and it doen’t seem weird anymore to we houses with corrugated iron roofs and walls. In Hobart even the larger public buildings have them.

It is from Hobart that the Sydney to Hobart yacht race takes place each December/January. The quayside is alive with Fish restaurants of every category selling fish and chips from the modest to mega stylish, most of the fish I have never heard of but all looked good we tried Blue eyed trevella.

There are also many old 1800 buildings in Hunter Street restored and used as Art galleries and exhibitions all well presented.

We really don’t know much about Tasmanian history and we certainly didn’t know that Cadburys chocolate has an enormous factory here.

Or that they had convict colonies in the 1800’s who built, bridges, ships, buildings and farmed. Key names to check out are Port Arthur, Richmond Bridge and Sarah Island. The early guys in charge used the convict labour also for their benefit building many of the big houses.

Richmond Bridge

Tasmania is the size of England with a population of only just 500,000 people. The air is clear and clean, and we have found that the people friendly and so helpful.

We met up with Fred and Lorena Rizio at our hotel – the Macquarie – bye the bye Macquarie is the name of the 5^th governor of Australia he was very active in many areas and a great governor and everywhere streets, harbours, banks, parks are named after him.

mount wellington and hobart harbour

So back to these great guys from Melbourne they are first generation Italian Aussies. They are passionate about food and as Lorena says “we’re Italian of course we love food” we had some great chats and found out that they have cousins in Sulmona and Fred was born in Pescara. What a small world to meet people with a connection to such an important area for us in the Jones family. Hope to see you in Melbourne guys.

Fred and Lorena Dress (or rather jeans) 69

MONA

We went to MONA the museum of Old and New Art don’t have any pictures unfortunately but try and check it out all owned by one man David Marsh, amazing collection, free to go in and an Ipod to guide you round. We did get one picture of this though which we thought at first was an accident

Car Crash MONA

Crossing to Strahan 300kms and over 6 ½ hours’ drive breath taking country with only very tiny villages and hamlets. The road which is the main and only road is just wide enough for two cars to pass and doesn’t run straight for more than a few hundred metres at a time.

We stopped gratefully in Hamilton and the newly painted Hamilton Café and Bakehouse

The smell of fresh coffee and pastry straight from the oven was a real treat, chatting to the owners we got so much great help on our journey what to look out for and things that were happening of interest. It’s called a Long or short Black.

Ric, Christine and their lawyer daughter from Sydney Elisabeth, Jess the other member of the team was hiding!

We bought two steak pies – the aussies love pies- and were all set for our picnic en route.

The Frankin Gordon Wild heritage Park we passed through this knowing we were going to be on the Gordon River the following day wonderful scenery.

Franklin Manor Strahan

The weather has been a bit of a surprise, bright sunshine but bitterly cold winds for the first few days as you can see from the pics. So we have had to Rug up as they say here

David did very well on the drive and we were very grateful to finally arrive at Strahan at the Franklin Manor. This was the harbour masters house originally and looks straight down the Macquarie harbour.

The Gordon River and world heritage site

In an attempt to get this down loaded before dinner………. The delicious smells are drifting through, they are of the numerous log fires and the fabulous grub here in the little restaurant…………………

I am going to let the pictures do the talking.

Today down the Gordon River and into the heritage site has been restful, informative, humbling; some of the trees we have seen are over 3000 years old. There is mile after mile of fabulous views, vegetation. And it’s all preserved as the guides say for you and me to enjoy and look after for the future. We were on the Lady Jane Franklin 11 and the Premier deck right by the master.