February 10 - Hobart, Tasmania

After a non-rocking night alongside in Hobart, I awoke to a beautiful morning in this, the capital city of Tasmania.  More than half the island’s population lives here.  The city is built around both sides of the estuary of the Derwent River and looming above it is Mt. Wellington, the highest mountain in the Wellington Range.  The mountain is nearly 4200 feet high and sometimes even has snow in the summer, but I didn’t see any today. 

Like the rest of Australia there were indigenous people here for thousands of years.  The first Europeans to come were several Dutch, French, and English explorers, including one pretty famous English captain in 1788 and 1792, Captain William Bligh, best known for the Mutiny on the Bounty.  Just as a little aside not relevant to Hobart, Captain Bligh who was quite maligned in film was probably one of the best mariners sailing.

Back to  Hobart.  The first settlement was a penal colony founded in 1804 by the British. That makes it the second state capital, the other being Sydney, that was founded for that purpose. Not long afterward it became a whaling port and for a time it was the southern ocean’s main whaling port. Transportation of convicts ended in the 1850’s and after that Hobart saw periods of growth and decline with mining, timber, and agriculture becoming the principal industries.  During both World Wars the city and state experienced a sharp decline in the male population as they went off to fight.  While there has been some immigration from Asia and other parts of the world, the population remains largely Anglo and Celtic, unlike some other parts of the country.

After breakfast my friend Helga and I walked around the harbor to the Salamanca Market, a huge outdoor market held every Saturday from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM.  In the 52 years since its inception it has grown from 6 stalls to over 300.  If you know Williamsburg’s Occasion for the Arts and Second Sunday Fairs, picture those on steroids.  There are vendors selling all sorts of local arts and crafts, foods, clothing and nearly everything you can imagine.  At the entrance to the market where I picked up a brochure showing all the vendors, I asked how it came to be named Salamanca because that’s a city in the northeast of Spain and nobody seemed to be have a clue.  Oh, well.

Look at this beautiful vase carved out of native myrtle wood

We walked through the entire place and bought a few things, but mainly we just browsed. There were quite a few gin distillers represented, but I didn’t sample or buy.  The sun wasn’t over the yardarm yet.  We had to return to the ship by 12:30 because I was booked on a tour to a town called Richmond (popular name) and the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  I failed to mention earlier that along the walk around the harbor there are some nice bronze sculptures which are called “Heading South.” They are a tribute to the explorers who passed through here on their way to the Antarctic.

After a quick lunch, I was off on my tour to Richmond and the wildlife sanctuary.  Our first stop was an overlook at Rosny Point across the river from downtown Hobart.  The view was nice and I was surprised how arid everything looked as compared to yesterday in Port Arthur.  Evidently there is a similar effect here as in the south island of New Zealand, with one side of the mountains getting more of the rain.  We drove on to a little town called Richmond along the Derwent River.  At one time there was consideration to make it the capital of Tasmania but the merchants of Hobart didn’t like that idea.  As often happens finances prevailed.  The town has a lot of small quaint shops and reminds me of places in the US that have become little artist colonies.  The guide mentioned a good puzzle shop and an old bakery, so that’s where I headed.  I’ve never seen so many puzzles and games in one place.  The bake shop made good iced lattes and I had a mocha truffle (I shouldn’t have but it sounded too good to pass up).

That's Mt. Wellington in the background and a little glimpse of Hobart behind the trees

I haven't been to Otago NZ but it's a lot closer than Oregon on this signpost in Richmond

Our last stop was the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  This was a very interesting place. It is entirely funded by contributions and entry fees and the mission is to rescue and rehabilitate Tasmanian animals.  They operate a 24-hour emergency line so that if someone anywhere on the island finds an injured animal like a kangaroo, a wombat or a devil, they can call and the Sanctuary will tell the person what to do immediately to try to help the animal until one of their people can get there.  They also run a hospital for the animals.

We were there in the afternoon and unfortunately many of the native animals are nocturnal so in the heat of the day it’s hard to get a glimpse of them.  There were lots of kangaroos in an enclosure that you could go in and feed, but I guess after seeing them in a couple of other places already I wasn’t as interested in them this time.  I wanted to see a wombat and a Tasmanian Devil.

In one of the enclosures I got to see two devils.  One was snoozing away and the other did run along the fence to get to the shade.  They don’t look nearly as fearsome as their name implies when they are sleeping. Their screech is apparently pretty awful.  One of my friends from North Carolina went to the sanctuary in the morning and he gave me some of his photos because the animals were more active then and I’m including them. (Thank you Leon, if you ever read this.)  In one a devil is having a brunch of something with a bone in it that he easily crunches through.  I saw a baby wombat that one of the handlers brought out in a big sack.  Leon and his wife Kim saw one out in the open in the morning so I’m stealing his photo of that guy too.

Look at those choppers!

He looks much more peaceful when he's snoozing.

Here's the baby wombat I saw

and these next two are courtesy of Leon and Kim who saw them in the morning

Then it was time to return to the ship.  Thank goodness!  I walked almost 16,000 steps  which translates to about 8 miles.  I was totally and completely pooped.  I went to dinner and the show and made an appearance at the club afterward, but I couldn’t dance; my feet wouldn’t allow it. We began rocking again after we sailed but not as bad as the other day.  I thought it was great for sleeping.  Tomorrow’s a sea day and an opportunity to recharge my batteries.