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Published: February 11th 2013
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It’s not often that one opens the curtains in the early morning to find a market being set up just across the way. The stall owners of the Sunday markets at the showground had an early start – and it was a cool morning.
We had a quick look around and then hit the highway. We had decided to do the circular drive south of Hobart to Huonville, following the coast. This is quite a fruit bowl as apples, cherries, and other stone fruit is grown here. We bought apples and some huge and delicious cherries and then had fun picking the wild blackberries that grew beside the road. As they’re considered a noxious weed and sprayed in most places of Australia, this was quite a novelty. I made some sauce and froze the rest to make something once we’re home. We continued our drive, calling into galleries and food stalls as far as Snug, where we stayed overnight at the caravan park. This was beside the water, very pretty.
This morning we left Snug and drove back to Hobart. It’s a small state - 296km from north to south, whilst at its widest point east to west, 315km.
The whole area of Tasmania is 68,119 square kilometres and so it’s a surprise that we get from A to B, in quite a short time. Today is a holiday – Regatta Day – and the Boat Show is still in full swing as well as other fun things happening around the waterfront. We decided we’d go back to have a look at the old stone buildings of Salamanca Place without the busyness of the Saturday markets. We were once again lucky enough to find a parking space right there, big enough to take the motor home. As we went to the machine to buy a ticket, we were told it was free for the holiday – win/win.
We loved going in and out of the buildings at Salamanca Place. It's full of coffee shops, arts and crafts of all the clever things made here, and gourmet food shops. We were in heaven. We found A Common Ground, owned by TV Gourmet Farmer, Matthew Evans and his partner, and bought some delicious cheese, some rye flour for Doug to make a loaf, and some garlic for me to plant. I grab Australian garlic when I see it – hopefully
this crop will be a bit more impressive than last year’s.
We drove out of Hobart, crossed the Tasman bridge and said goodbye to Hobart, next town, Richmond. We had loved being in Hobart, so much to see and do. Richmond is a similar old town to Ross with many old stone buildings, a convict-built bridge, which they hastened to point out, is two years older than that at Ross.
After Richmond we had a relatively long drive up steep hills and past sunburnt paddocks full of dusty sheep. We intended stopping at Triabunna but the caravan park was full, so it was yet more driving to Swansea where we are staying overnight. We are on the waterfront and we look over the Freycinet Peninsular across the water. We'll be going there tomorrow.
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