Another Window Seat…

…another fab vista as we came into land in Hobart, Tasmania around noon today.

The Melbourne entrée to this adventure has come to a close. Em and I left the  amazing 29th floor airbnb around 8am, headed across the street to catch the Skybus, and soon found ourselves back at the airport. We took our leave of each other as Em headed east, home to Sydney, and myself south to Hobart, our flights just 10 minutes an apart.

So… I am now in Tasmania; I am now on my own! So far, so good! The flight was just over an hour and I was quickly reunited with my case and collected a hire car, then headed into the city, parked, and checked into The Alabama Hotel, or “The Bam” as it’s known! It’s a lovely, quirky, art deco hotel with funky designs and artwork.

I checked in, and went out ~ to explore Hobart in the lovely autumn sunshine. It’s a port city with an exceedingly dubious past as a big colonial penal colony and for the settlers’ horrendous treatment of the indigenous people, which I learnt a little about on my meanderings.

It is very attractive with many stunning art deco buildings, as well as other styles of architecture. I found myself taking lots of photos…! I wandered down towards the harbour, stopping to spend a fascinating hour in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, housing a great mix of items, including a fascinating room produced by and about local indigenous people - their language, customs, skills etc.

Two pieces of art particularly struck me, both thought-provoking about different eras of Hobart’s story. One depicted portraits of the 180 female prisoners transported on the Rajah from England in 1841 ~ the ‘portraits’ are speculative but around each woman the artist, Bern Emmerichs, has written what has been gleaned about each individual - name, ‘crime’, age, other details known of their appearance, marital state, family, skills. The second is a series of 10 portraits of the faces of 10 indigenous people by Benjamin Duterrau in 1835, with a list of the names or descriptions assigned to them, including, ‘Timmy, Attention, Anger, wide of Woureddy, Incredulity, Surprise, Suspicion’….

I walked on to explore the port and wharfs, enjoying the sunshine, and then around to Salamanca Place - a row of former warehouses from the 1880s now housing the local Arts Centre, bars, galleries and restaurants. I climbed Kelly’s Steps up to Battery Point and enjoyed a rather different style of architecture - more photos, this time of houses! I came back down to the waterfront via Princes Park and was in need of a drink… so stopped at a place called ‘Grape’ and enjoyed my fist glass of local Tassie white wine, accompanied by fresh local oysters - yum!

I then managed to pop into Mawson’s Huts Replica Musuem for about 15 minutes before they closed. The name sort of tells the story! Sir Douglas Masson and his team left for Antarctica from Hobart port ~ 200 metres from the museum ~ in 1911, and built huts like this one as their base.  Interesting even in so short a time!

Following the advice of The Lonely Planet guide, dinner came from one of the four floating fish punts, “Flippers” ~ gorgeous fish from today’s catch.

Phew! Another full day, so I hope I’ll sleep well at “The Bam”! Here’s a few more photos from today’s chapter of the adventure…