Saturday 16th December – Salamanca markets and Port Arthur

We hadn’t bothered with the expensive breakfast at our hotel and today was with very good reason – on Saturdays the Salamanca markets take place on the harbourside in Hobart.  This is famous for offering all sorts of local Tasmanian produce so it is a tourism hotspot.  Everyone else had definitely had the same idea. It was very busy but that gave it good atmosphere.  We strolled slowly, weaving back and forth through the market stalls, eventually selecting a treat each for breakfast.  Lots of goods on offer but we always have the same thing going through our minds – we don’t really want to buy anything extra as we’d have to find some way of packing it and carrying it for the rest of this trip.  Our bags are getting harder to close each time… I blame the shot glasses!

Bustling Salamanca Markets on a Saturday morning

From the Salamanca markets it was a short walk to collect our hire car from Hertz.  We opted for this transport option in the hope that it would be cheaper than renting a camper for only a couple of days and also cheaper than joining an organised tour group.  From Hobart we headed to the South-Eastern town of Port Arthur, one of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict sites.  The penal settlement began life as a small timber station in 1830 but quickly grew with importance within the colonies. Ship building on a large scale was introduced to give the convicts a useful skill they could use once freed, whilst also making use of the available labour. Our entry ticket included an informative walking tour and a boat tour of the harbour to see some of the nearby islands which were used for youth detention and as a cemetery – the Isle of the Dead. 

How the remains of the penitentiary look today and, below, a comparison photograph from its heyday

 

View south through this gap between islands- there is no more land until you reach Antarctica

As usual I also enjoyed the bird life - plovers, above, and a Fairy Wren, below

 

In addition to this significant history from the nineteenth century, in April 1996 Port Arthur became the scene of the biggest mass murder in Australian history.  On a normal day for tourists visiting the site, just like us today, a madman suddenly opened fire on the crowds killing 35 people and injuring 25 more before being arrested. This tragedy led to a national restriction on high capacity semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. The majority of the murders took place in the Broad Arrow café and today, the remains of that building stand within a garden as a memorial to those who lost their lives.

The shell of the Broad Arrow Cafe

With our time on Tasmania limited, we wanted to make some progress up the East coast before stopping for the night whilst not wanting to miss out on some of the sites.  We stopped off at a Blow hole, which today was mildly blowing, and other coastal viewpoints. 

 

 

Stunning view along the east coast of Tasmania

We then picked the most direct route north, across the mountains which turned out to consist of a length of unmade road!  We thought we were lost a couple of times and the road conditions were a nightmare, but it wasn’t our car to worry about and we saw some amazing scenery!

An abandoned car? No, just us exploring Tasmania 'off road'

I think this roo was in shock - no one drives this way EVER!

Mmmmm, chicken parmi!

Having stayed in the hotel in Hobart we really needed to downgrade and save some money but it seems the accommodation options on this part of the east coast were limited. We called in at a caravan site which had a cabin available for $130 (about £75) so we carried on searching for a bit, but this turned out to be the cheapest and best option available. Looking to save our dollars elsewhere we selected the cheapest chicken parmi from the menu for our dinner before enjoying the luxurious cabin and its DVD selection.