Saturday 9th May
This morning I woke fairly early to head to the airport. Catching my shuttle bus it took a lot less time to reach the airport than I had been told. Not a bad thing as I always prefer to have too much time than not enough.
The next few hours were pretty uneventful. My Qantas flight left on schedule and I passed the hours flight using the tablet provided to watch an episode of the new tv series 'Flash'. Arriving in Hobart I collected my bag and went to find a shuttlebus to the city- not hard as it's a small airport.
At my accommodation I checked in and repacked my daypack for tomorrow while I had the room to myself. I then headed out and spent a little over 3 hours walking around the city. Hobart is defiantly deceiving. It looks and feels much more like a town than the sprawling city I saw on my way in. At least this is what I though for the first 45minutes I wandered the main highstreets. Then I found the malls. Yep. Multiple.
Hobart may look as though it only has a couple of main streets but in reality it has two huge malls which go underground and have some very high end shops, as well as a few highstreet types. Having wandered around as many shops as possible (and already made plans in my head to maybe do some shopping before my flight next week!) I headed for the marina and walked along the road to the. There's a massive ANZAC monument here sat atop the small hill which gives good 360views of Hobart.
Heading back into town I followed the marina down to Samulana a very cool little eatery area. Soon I headed back to the hostel, it's amazing how tired you can feel, having done very little.
Sunday 10th May
This morning I joined my next -and last- tour. My new driver/guide would be Matt and soon we would be joined by 9 other passengers. 1 Australian, 3 Americans, 2 Dutchies, 1 German and 2 Swiss.
Heading out of the city we made our way down and through Derwater and to Russell Falls where we did a walk. These falls were quite amazing with us coming up behind them to view what looked like a vertical drop. Moving around slightly as we descended the nearby staircase, we saw that there are in fact tiny little terraces lining the top 3rd of the falls. Very pretty and impressive.
Getting back to the car park as the rain worsened we hopped back onboard and continued on. We stopped for lunch at Lake St Clair which I'm sure on a nice day, gives a beautiful view. As it was we huddled under the covered picnic area and made a brief visit down to the beach, shrouded in grey.
Our other stop of the day was at Nelson falls which was a short walk from the carpark. On the way we saw how fast the river was flowing and saw a Crayfish crab. Moving on the falls were immense with the recent rainfall but not nearly as pretty as the first one. Back on the bus we made one more stop at a lookout but within seconds got drenched through as the rain came down again- that's okay, my feet were already wet beforehand!
At the hostel in Strahan (pronounced Strewn) we were spread across multiple rooms again. This has happened a few times in Oz and it surprises me everytime- normally you would expect them to put you in as few a rooms as possible, so there's less cleanup. Still me and Stacey weren't complaining, getting a good size 4 bed dorm to ourselves.
We spent the next couple of hours trying to warm up without much success. We had the heater on full blast trying to dry our shoes and only left the room to have our group dinner. Rather reluctantly at that. We then sought out the toilet/shower block and tried to get the temperamental wifi to work. When we couldn't take the cold anymore we went back inside to begin the warmup process once again.
We spent the next couple of hours talking and I was amazed at the places Stacey has been. She's done Africa, Galapagos, Chile, Peru, Antarctica for gods sake! It made for interesting listening! After a while we decided to brave the showers and were pleased at just how hot the showers were. If only we could stay in there!
Monday 11th May
Monday morning we got up and had breakfast. After a good few weeks of sleeping like the dead on arriving in Oz I seem to have reverted back to normal, and am now sleeping fitfully again. So I was still feeling half asleep as we made our way onto the bus and got dropped down at the Harbor. 4 of us had opted to do a boat cruise rather than the 11km walk. This wasn't because we didn't want to do the walk but with it being likely to rain we fancied seeing and doing something a little more dry- wet trainers once again, remember.
The boat trip involved leaving through 'Hells Gate', the narrow opening in Macquarie Harbor and heading towards Sarah Island with a brief stop to watch the local fishfarms be fed. At Sarahs Island we joined a short walking tour which was both entertaining and informative.
Sarahs Island was a former Convict settlement, known as hell on earth. It was such a brutal way of life that suicide pacts were common place. One person would kill another, putting them out of their misery and then they themselves would find escape in being sent back to Hobart to be hung.
We were told stories of how lashing were the most common form of punishment but the would have lead threaded into it to inflict more pain and do as much damage as possible. The lead was a sadist man and it was no surprise to hear that when his boat over turned just off shore, no one helped him, instead allowing him to drown.
One man escaped with 7 other convict, eventually making it near to Hobart where he was caputed. Asked where the other escapees were, confessed to having eaten them. The judge didn't believe him and sent him back to Sarahs Island. Once again escaped, this time with just one other convict. When he was captured a short time later he still had 'parcels' of his companion with him and with this undeniable evidence of his deads, he was hung for his crimes.
Half way through Sarah Islands 12year history, things began to change. Until now the convicts had been used for hard labor and had built up one of the largest shipyards in Australia. After a rousing speech by a fellow convict about to be hung, a group of Sarah Island convicts began to make plan. They gathered evidence against the latest dr and presented it at such a time that it couldn't be brushed under the carpet. 4 'witnesses' then claimed to have witnessed a soldier doing unthinkable things with the Reverend goat and
Gave up and left the Island. This is when made his presence known. Was a wealthy who was a master shipbuilder. He had come to Sarahs Island with big plans to use the convicts to build his shipping empire- and give them jobs once they completed their sentences. Faced with the chaos on the Island after departed he took up the mantle to restore some semblance of order. He bartered with the convicts, getting rid of the, moving them into better 'housing' and in turn demanded loyalty to the ship building business. Life may have still been harsh on Sarah Island, but this proved a major turning point in the convicts way of life.
After leaving Sarahs Island we continued on and had a buffet lunch onboard 'The Eagle' as we made our way down the Gordon River. We then took part in a short walk through the rainforest's before heading back to Strahan.