Want to go to a place where they try hard to stuff chocolate down your throat for free? Even when you politely refuse, but then take a handful anyway? Then head over to Hobart City and head out to the Cadbury's factory in Claremont where they make the stuff! If you have no mercy for your waistline and the daily calorie count, then this is the place for you!

Cadbury's set up shop here for a variety of good business reasons a good few years ago, but that did not matter one little bit to our business minds! We were here for chocolate, just chocolate and nothing but the chocolate.......and just in case you were wondering, more chocolate. Ing was bouncing around like a little kid in a sweet shop.....and that was before we even got in there! But what is a Cadbury factory, but a massive sweet shop!

While we were waiting for the tour to start, how can we not be tempted by the hot chocolate drink actually made from the shavings of real Dairy Milk? And they certainly did not hold back either! Now that is the way to enjoy a café mocha or a hot chocolate! Just add a little water to the chocolate!

It was interesting to hear that the Dairy Milk chocolate is the same around the world except for the sugar and milk that is used. We were told that it is in fact the different sugar and milk that makes for the different tastes around the world. Furthermore, each and every single Australian consumes 5.53kg of chocolate every year! That includes every single man, woman and child. That means that the Australians are eating a shedload of chocolate. But consider that not every person will eat that much chocolate and I am sure that parents would never allow their kids to have that much chocolate; factor in the fact that some people, apparently, don't eat chocolate (is this a medical condition? Do they know what they are missing out on? Or are they mad?) and you have to consider that some people are eating a lot more than a shedload of chocolate! There must be some REAL chocolate-lovin' Australians out there and judging by the size of some of them on Melborne's streets, it is not hard to understand why! But the Australians are a far cry behind the Irish who top the list at 13.25kg per person per year! Now that is a lot of chocolate to eat!

Here is a place where chocolate is king and worshipped as such! There are even adverts from WWII that feature pictures of sailors and aircrews floating at sea waiting rescue with wording imploring the civilians to think about those "out there" that have a dire need for chocolate. Chocolate was the only thing that stands between their survival and death at sea. Chocolate, noble chocolate.

Like any good tour, it ends with a visit to the factory shop. There are signs here imploring the employees, who get discount on top of the prices, that they can only buy one 10kg box of mixed chocolate....leave some for the others. With Christmas round the corner, this was one shop doing a very very brisk trade. And since we had a few more weeks of camping ahead of us, we too would need some chocolate to keep our spirits up in the days ahead!