Day 9 – Port Arthur to Hobart

A bit of a dreary morning, and as we’re packing up it starts to drizzle, not too hard, but just a bit of a nuisance.  As we’re really just going to drive to Hobart, and maybe a trip up Mt Wellington, weather is not too important, and if it had to be a bit crappy, today is a good day for it.

As we’ve only got to go about 90km, we’re in no rush and try not to leave before 10. 

Back over Eaglehawk Neck, and we see a sign to the Tessellated Pavement, we recall this from last trip and it’s only 4 K’s and as mentioned we’ve got plenty of time so we take the turn.  About 1km down the road, there is this lookout, but a coffee van has setup and there must be 20 cars is a place made for 10.  Trying to navigate the van though this maze is a right PIA, particularly the bloke towing a motorized scooter in the middle of the road.

We come to the small dirt carpark for the walk, and I park the van as best I can.  It’s about a 500mtr walk down to this ocean side rock ledge, with these amazing, mostly square cut divides.  Liam is surprised that this is a natural occurrence and not man-made.

After that, we see Devils Kitchen and blowhole, but realise these are south of the neck, so elect to give them a miss.

We ditch the highway at Dunalley, and follow the coast roa., Unfortunately, we miss the turnoff to continue along to Dodge’s Ferry, so rejoin the highway sooner than expected.  At least this was all tar.

All the drive the traffic going out has been pretty constant, and as we hit Sorell, the oncoming traffic is pretty much bumper to bumper.  Looks like a lot of Hobartarians are heading to the east coast for Easter!

We arrive at the pretty basic Caravan park, there are really only three in Hobart, none are close.  One is right next to the airport (no thanks, we can get that at home!).  None of them look fantastic either, so we picked this one when booking.

After setting up we head into the suburbs of Hobart for a late lunch, from here we can see Mt Wellington, the summit, initially it seemed clear, but now some cloud appears to be covering the peak.  We decide to try anyway.  Over the Tasman Bridge, and through Hobart Central (the kids can tick all the Capital Cities off now!).  Somehow, I’ve found myself in the wrong lane and end up on one of the freeways, bugger.  We end up taking the VERY scenic tour via Longley and come up to the Mt Wellington road from the southeast.  

We start at about 500mtr and climb, we’re following a large motorhome, and I’ve got to give this guy credit, this is a steep and damn narrow road, and he’s making damn good progress in this bus of a vehicle.  He pulls over just shy of the summit so we overtake, and he arrives not long after us.  I give him the thumbs up for effort.  He wasn’t 100% sure he’d make it.

Not long before the top, we find ourselves level with the underside of these dark clouds out off the side of the mountain.  We couldn’t get a good photo, but this was so bizarre.

At the summit, the BOM has 10°, but with a “feels like” of -1°, we get the jackets and beanies, and boy do we need them.  They seem to have closed off the easy way to walk to the summit marker, so we, like everyone else, climbs up the rocks on the side to get up there to take a photo.

Damn it’s windy, up here and did I mention cold…..But that view is god damn sensational.

A quick dive into the observation room, which is protected from the elements.

We start the drive back down, so we drop from about 1200 down to 500 mts when we hit the bottom.  We go looking for this Silver Falls, but can’t seem to find it so give up.

Back through Hobart and to the van park.   Justine takes the kids to play a game of Putt Putt that they have in the park.  It is the most amazing 18 hole putt putt, that we’ve ever seen.  A veritable St Andrews of Putt Putt.  The kids have fun.

The Jockey wheel is starting to jam up, I thought the issue might have been related to the angles at Port Arthur, but it’s really a problem with the wheel, I’ll need to try and get a new one while I’m here in Hobart.

One Reply to “Day 9 – Port Arthur to Hobart”

  1. You are all well rugged up there, looks cold. Worth the drive up though, the views are magnificent.
    Sounds like their sign posting leaves a lot to be desired, not good PR for the tourists.

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