Tasmania

Sat. 4/11 We flew to Hobart on the east coast of Tasmania yesterday. We have a wonderful hotel in an old mansion on a hill above the harbor. This morning we went to the Salmanaca Market, a big local street market with everything you can imagine. We were short on time but I could have spent all day. We bought local fruit & bread & cheese for our lunches. We have been quite happy picnicking everyday. We found Tom's Australian hat at the market. We had looked all over Sydney but couldn't find exactly the right one. That's because it was waiting for us in Tasmania. It's made of kangaroo and ostrich & made by an old German man who has lived here for 20 years. As some of you know we collect national parks so Tasmania is going to be a bonanza for us. We drove through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers NP today. We took several short hikes on the Franklin River and drove up and over a big mountain range. The last 30K were very scary. The roads were narrow with constant hair-pin curves and very steep grades. We were both glad to arrive in the little fishing village of Strahan. Our hotel is an the old mansion built for the harbormaster in the last century and is quite lovely. We "had a bit of a wander" around town then drove out to Ocean Beach to see the sunset. It is a long wide sandy beach with big sand dunes and big waves rolling in from Antarctica across the Great Southern Ocean. Lots of people came out with their wine and beer and sat up on the bluff to watch the sunset. It was gobsmacking!