Around the peninsula

Today started are 6 day Tasmania tour and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. Our tour started at 8:30am and we found out there are only 5 of us plus our driver/guide on it in a 15 passenger mini van. That is for the first three days and after that it looks like we might be just Dale and I going on the rest of the days with our driver. We will have to see if others join us as the three with us now leave.

We started the day with a walk around the Hobart dock area. This crane was what they used to unload ships. It rolled up and down the docks on tracks

There were a set of sculptures right on one part of the water side of the wharf

They represented important people, animals, and things to Hobart. This guy was an Antarctic explore based out of Hobart

Fishing is still one of the major industries 

Next we drove up to look at the ruins of the women factory

All that was left were walls 15% of the convicts sent here were woman. They called it a factory instead of a prison as they had to work for 10-12 hours a day.

This is the picture of the brewery that I included last time. It was built in 1824 and more upper floors were added in 1927, the top two floors were what was added

We were told a fun story about this bell. Up until this brewery was sold to a bigger company in the 1990’s, this bell was rung every hour. When it was rung, the workers had 10 minutes to drink all the beer they wanted/could. They each carried a hip flask/cup. So every hour they worked they got free drinks. When the other company bought it and did away with that practice, the workers almost revolted. Now they get several cases of beer every Friday after work.

 We then went up to the top of Mt Wellington. As it was a cloudy day we were right in the clouds and snow was still hiding under many bushes

The thin white tower you barely see is Avery tall communication tower that serves Hobart as this is the highest point around at 1270 meters tall (4166ft)

Through the clouds, you can just make out Hobart below, maybe. You can definitely make out the tops of some of the clouds 

It was windy out on the walkways. The observation building is behind me

Since we had so many seats in the bus, Babs decide to take the one next to me. Each of the humans had a window seat

After coming down the mountain, we drove into the Coal Valley where wine making is the major business 

Our first stop was at this winery 

We went there to look at this inlayed floor about the history of wine making in this valley

This information was written on the floor along area, but also placed here on the wall

Our lunch stop today is at this vineyard for wine tasting and a lunch plate

I tried everything on my platter. Raw oyster and the octopus were not high on my like zone.

This place was themed with rubber ducks. A little strange, but whatever 

After that we went another vineyard and chocolate factory. It was a small operation, just a family business. They buy there cocoa beans direct from farms they visit to be sure the are fair trade and the roast and process all the chocolate themselves

The wife does all these chocolates herself

And they both make the single source bars

Then we went to the town of Richmond 

It also had the wall still of an old prison

Most of the town still has 1800’s house and businesses. The  guide said when some of the towns were tearing down old building in the 1960’s and 70’s. This town could not afford to build new and now it is a tourist town for all it’s historic building. Many are on historic registers 

Their down town looks much like it did when the town was founded in the 1830’s 

Many building have been repurposed but still retain their charm

Some of the old mansions are still as they were built

Others have been turned into commercial buildings

This is the other end of their Main Street

The building were mostly built with local stone

I did not see anything over two stories except churches

This bridge is the oldest continuously used bridge in Tasmania 

Sheep dotted the fields as we made our way to the peninsula that Port Arthur was located on

We stopped at several places  along the way to look down at the bay

There were three main spurs of land jetting of the peninsula into the bay

We stopped here to get the lay of the land

Looking out across our guide told us the there was a spot that narrowed to a thinner land area called eaglehawkeck where they would chain vicious dogs so the prisoner of the peninsula could not escape up that way.

We stopped there for tea and biscuits 

Next we stopped at this are

Below the  rocks looked like they had been laid down

But when we walked down there it still look manmade, but was just how the rocks had weathered to form what looked like squares 

Dale took a bit of a walk down them

Then we took another stop at a place called Devils Arch

Where one the way back from a stroll we saw this mum and her Joey 

Our last stop of the day before we headed to our hotel was just around a curve from Port Arthur

Was a bit of a hike 120 steps down to it

With water weeping down the rocked on the one side

And a cave that lead to the ocean on the other side. Also fairly windy.

It was a very cool sight to see and I even made it back up those 120 steps without too much trouble. 

Next blog will start with the Port Arthur Historic site