Final Days in Tasmania 8th - 9th Dec

Hobart 8th Dec.

I said goodbye to interesting Brian who was heading back up to the North of the island early in the morning. I decided to utilize my automatic death trap of a car to go for one last trip and decided to retry going down the coast along the Huon trail.

It was a nice enough trip but I am sure I could have better spent the time going somewhere else - infact I don't think I took any pics of the whole trip!

On the way back to Hobart I decided to do a detour and head up Mount Wellington. On the first day of the guided tour we went to what I thought was the Mount wellington lookout which was just slightly up from the city. However when I started going up the road in the car I soon realised that it went all the way to the top. There was some fantastic views of Hobart and beyond - well worth the effort and the car hire for the day.

Views from the top of Mount Wellington:








Wedge tailed Eagle

After I had returned my deathtrap car back to the rental place (thankfully still intact) I went back to the hostel to relax in my now empty room. I eventually went downstairs for some grub and my last couple of pints in the bar. Once I had placed my order at the bar I sat down near the sidewall and started eating.

While doing so I happened to notice an art-book beside me and started looking at it. I could not believe what I was looking at. The book was by an Irish Artist - from Belfast of all places and East Belfast at that. Not only that but it turns out that in his childhood he went to South Africa before coming back to Belfast. Then he emigrated to Tasmania! I was fasinated by it. Most of the photos were of modern art sculptures he did out of rusty tools but it also had paintings of places in Belfast and County Down as well as ones of Africa and Tasmania. Interspased with the painting and sculptures were writings about himself and poems and traditional poems and songs from back home. I read it from cover to cover and when I had finished I glanced up to see a reproduction of one of his paintings hanging up on the wall.

I noted down the artist - George Callaghan art works ISBN 0-646-42985-X. I would recommend a read of it - very interesting guy.

I retired early as I had to get up and pack early in the morning.

Hobart - Melbourne 9th Dec.
I should never have said that my trip to Tasmania went without incident because the trip back was a complete mess! I had thought that all I had to do was get the number of the shuttle bus in the morning and then just tell them were I could be picked up. So I was slightly stressed when the number I got off the Sydney Hotal's barman turned out to be a shuttle bus service that no longer operated.

Plan B was simply to go to were the shuttle bus had left me off beside St Davids Cathedral. I was sure that the shuttle buses simply came along and dropped off/picked up people there quite regularly. 20 minutes of waiting produced no bus.

Plan C was to go to the tourist information office and get the correct number for the shuttlebus - which I did only to be told that the bus would be another 45 minutes before it could pick me up.

Plan D - find a taxi rank - after 10 minutes that failed as well but I did eventually manage to hail a cab which got me to the airport with time to spare. A snip at $35! Why won't I learn!

At around 4pm I arrived back in Collingwood backpackers - home at last!

BEERS I HAVE DRUNK
Ironhouse Pale Ale - New Sydney Hotel

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT
Rays Law: No matter how much time I give myself to get ready for moving on I will always fart around too much and end up rushing for my flight.