March 10 - Hobart Area

Tuesday, March 10 - Day 35 - Hobart area

Daylight wakes Dick about 7AM and he checks email and texts our daughter regarding a sick child. She seems to be improving. He also uses Quicken to send a check we owe for shipping new electrical plug adapters to us in Thailand. The marvels of electronics and the internet!

Carolyn is still not up at 8:25AM when Dick leaves to go to Mures Seafood for a morning coffee. Yesterday a mug was $4.90AUD; this morning the sweet young Barista charges Dick $3.90AUD.  It must be his winning smile and Texas accent!  Carolyn is up by the time he returns about 8:45AM. We have another good breakfast watching the harbor come alive. Our plan for the day is to get the blog up to date through yesterday before getting out. We have good internet through tonight and have no idea what it is going to be like for the next week or so. It should be OK in Bangkok.

Blog posted, we head out with the intention of taking the ferry across to Bruny Island. We arrive at the ferry dock just in time to see it pulling away and are told that the next one will not be until 1:45PM and that is way too long to cool our heels. We decide to go to Plan B, which in the planning stage was Plan A and drive the coast road of the Huon area peninsula. We changed this original plan because of what several guest at the Launceston B&B said about the island. The Huon area is an apple and grape growing area and the drive is quite pleasant as the day is cool and clear and the scenery is very nice. The views out over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel are spectacular. There are many quaint Victorian homes and little churches and shops. The colors of choice are yellow and green or yellow and reddish orange. we see several honor flower and fruit stands in front of homes.There are many picnic places and small little harbors loaded with sail boats.

We stop in Cygnet for a sandwich to share and something to drink. We pass more sail boats and orchards. Many covered with netting to keep the birds at bay. Further on we stop by the shore of the Huon River and eat our lunch while listening to the waves. The water here is called golden in color...to us it has a brownish cast. This is from the tannin that gets washed into the river that feeds this part of the coast. Near the mouth if the River we see what must be fish farming. This pleasant black top and gravel road drive takes about two hours and we meet back up with Hwy. A6 for the trip back to Hobart. We pick up some fruit to go with our dinner and make one last stop at the overlook for a view of sleeping beauty. a formation in the Wellington Range.

Back in Hobart, we stop at a “Chemist” to pick up some sun screen for Carolyn and then return to the room where Carolyn begins packing, Dick does some bookkeeping with Carolyn’s memory help and we begin work on this part of the blog.

We send emails to the resort in Bali to confirm our arrival and send another one to a man who is to give us a tour of the island on March 16 as we move from one location to another.  Not knowing what to expect or plan for in the way on internet from the 14th until we arrive in Thailand late in the evening on the 18th we give our family a heads up on that situation also.

We have our last cocktails on the balcony watching some of the fishing boats come back in. This is a working harbor with a swing bridge and everything. By 7:30PM Carolyn has had a shower and Dick is heading that way. Dinner is another light one; we will finish the quiche and tarts from last night. Tomorrow is another travel day. Bummer!!!But on the bright side we will be heading to the GOR!

We have been very favorably impressed with Tasmania. It is beautiful and probably a sportsman’s paradise. There is a ton of property for sale and we have seen a lot of places we could call home if we were looking to move. Of course, you would have to agree to put up with the mind set of Australian government if you moved here! It is just a little to much of a big brother government for our taste. But we love visiting.