Hobart

I forgot to mention that while we were in Nubeena, our last night there we went into the RSL to have a few drinks and we were talking to a man original from Yorkshire I think and if anyone remembers a few years ago on Big Brother and the girl, Reggie, (who said bugger all the time) won that particular year; well this guy is her dad. Now Reggie lives at Paradise Point in Qld.


We have a beaut view of the water at Treasure Island Caravan Park,

the Cadbury factory to our left Mmmmmm and a sewerage plant to our right  Ewwwwwww.  No its not that bad we can hardly ever smell the sewerage plant hahaha.  It was hot when we arrived 33C but the car shows 39C were we are, so we unhooked and left the van locked up and went for a drive up to Mt Wellington and the drive was great but the view was magnificent. 

 

 

hiding out of the wind trying to take a photo
 

I'm not sure if 1270m is classed as a mountain but up here it is windy enough to blow the spots off a leopard.

 

Back at camp we were greeted by the residents who tend to make themselves at home where ever they please.

Richmond is our next visit and  "Old Hobart Town", it is a miniature replica of Hobart in the 1830's, everything is made by hand, even the figurines.  It was fascinating.

While we were here the wind started to blow again and Richmond is a town full of old beautiful cottages and the Richmond Bridge oldest bridge in Australia made by the convicts still used as a road today

and the oldest Catholic Church in Australia

by lunchtime it was blowing a gale again and we decided to head back to camp before doing anything else. The car was shaking in the wind while we were waiting for the  traffic lights to change.
At camp the neighbouring campers had dropped all our poles off our awning and tied down our awning to the van and put rocks on everything so it didn't blow away or get too damaged.  We did have a tear in the awning where a pole has gone through one of the corners but a local guy patched it up for us for about $80.
We actually put a few things away and because the wind was still blowing we left it as it was and went to "Mona".  Now Mona is a ..... museum of art old and new.  We had several ppl tell us we should see this so my curiosity got the better of me and I didn't even know what I was going to see.  Steve and I enjoyed it BUT one has to have some sort of appreciation for art and a very open mind.  It is not everyone's cup of tea but it is interesting, weird and fascinating all at the same time.  Some would say some art is crap well Mona has a piece of art work that does crap.  Yes it is fed in the morning at 11am and it craps at the other end daily at 4pm.  It is all run by computer and we were not there to witness the event at 4pm but the room does have an unusual aroma to it, if you know what I mean.  Mona also has lots of ancient artifacts, paintings and sculptures and I think we came out of there quite enlightened.

the fat car

cement truck made out of steel

The wind had settled a bit but there was still continuous gusts, so in between these gusts I tried to quickly make a couple of steak sandwiches with some minute steaks.  Well I had everything ready, toast in hand, tomato sliced, lettuce:  steak on bread and guess what.....a gust of wind.....blew the steak of the bread, the board with the tongs, knife and all the sliced tomato blew over and off the bench.....there was even a slice of tomato stuck to the side of the van that we didn't notice until we had finally finished dinner.  What do you do...we just laughed.
Guess where else we went?

Bit disappointed, they don't do tours of the factory any more but we did get a video display and explanation of how the chocolates are made.  Stocked up on a few treats and left.
We have just spent the last couple of days driving around the surrounding areas of Hobart and looking at cottages, beaches and lots of old stuff.

 

Friday nights are interesting in Tassie, the next pic is about two ppl over indulging with some alcohol and drugs and a broken window and a woman with some cuts to her body and a man bolting from the police.

Police tape across an onsite van at the caravan park

Anyway getting to every day stuff.  Every Saturday is the Salamanca markets

 and today is no different except the Webers are here and what happens when the Webers are around .... it rains.  We got through half of the markets and even had a lovely hot spud for lunch but showers were predicted and cold weather.  Well we were prepared for the cold but not the showers/rain so now we have a new umbrella from Kathmandu shop to add to the rest of our collection of wet weather gear that was in our car parked ten minute walk away from where we were.  But the Greek Festival was on in a building on the pier so we went in there and watched some Greek dancing and smashing of plates and had some hot prawns and scallops on skewers so that was fun.

 

Rain stopped for a bit so back to the car and into the CBD did a bit of window shopping out of the cold 11C and thought we will go back to camp get all our winter woollies on, have a cup of tea and blog....and now it is raining again and we are curled up and cozy in our warm van of 16.5C  and wait for it...tomorrow we are going to Huonville to do a jet boat ride yehhhhhh!!!
But I really hope the weather improves!  Could be wearing the sexy thermal numbers tomorrow.

Until we read again.