Lovely Hobart- a great city

Feb 1st

A sunny day-hooray! On our way to Hobart we stopped off at a berry farm and Sorrell where we picked up some fruit sauce and strawberries. It was then on to one of Tassie’s most historic towns- Richmond, which has Australia’s oldest bridge and is a very pretty little place. Adam bought a tassie scallop pie from the bakery- it tasted so good I had to go and get one for lunch too. They are pretty popular down here.
We then wound our way into Hobart- our caravan park is about 10km north of the city itself in a lovely quiet spot right on the banks of the Derwent River- we actually have a great view of water and mountains, which came as a pleasant surprise.
We quickly set up and then went to Cascade Brewery- we did the tour and then sat in their historic gardens in the sun and sampled some beer. Very relaxing. We sat with a fellow from America who was there on his own- he’s currently travelling the world and we exchanged a few travel tales.
After that we drove up Mt Wellington- it’s about 1200metres high and towers over Hobart. Hobart is such a lovely city! Great old buildings and surrounded by water and mountains. We did a short bushwalk about halfway down the mountain, before taking a quick drive around Hobart’s waterfront/restaurant area to have a look. Another long but fun day for us. With another on the way tomorrow- a big hike planned.
Cheers,
The Wanderers.


Feb 2nd

Another clear sunny start to the day so we decided to head southwest of Hobart and tackle a mountain hike in the Hartz Mountains National Park- down past Huonville. It took us close to an hour and a half to drive down there, with the last part a winding dirt road into the national park and a beautiful alpine region.
The walk was list as being 9km and a 4 hour round trip. On the way up the mountain we passed several lovely alpine lakes. We sat at the first one and enjoyed the view. It was a great walk up, a lot of it on boards through a wet, open alpine environment, lots of rocks, flowering grasses and small shrubs, with water trickling down. We had great views on the way and the last part of the walk was a pretty steep climb over rocks. We clambered up to the peak, at an elevation of about 1250m. It was windy and cool at the top. We climbed onto the actual peak together and took in amazing views of the south west mountains and world heritage wilderness area. Just stunning. So much emptiness and beauty. The perfect reward for the hike up. We sat and ate our lunch before heading back down.

We then drove back towards Hobart, making a much needed stop for groceries on the way back (we’ve been so busy and on the go the past couple of weeks our food supply, and back up food box was looking pretty slim- we were also nearly out of clean clothes before we finally did some washing today).

Tomorrow we are going out to Bruny Island and staying there the night. A friend highly recommended the island for its scenery and wildlife so we are really looking forward to it. We are also REALLY looking forward to a night out of the caravan. We are staying in a self-contained beachhouse for the night- set high on a hill with ocean views.

Sending love home…will be able to catch up with most of you again soon.

Love Emma & Adam xx