Hobart

I think Hobart was happy to see us! Put on this lovely rainbow show for us.

A beautiful clear (and cold day at the Harbour)

Can you believe it, though? Snow on Mt Wellington!

Salamanca Place. We went to the market here on Saturday. Amazing and diverse.

Sticky meets Sir Douglas Mawson and his dog.
That is not very respectful, Sticky!
Naughty Boy!
We just loved these statues in honour of Douglas Mawson's explorations



And just to add to the theme, this old ship came sailing in.

Pretty amazing fountain thingo... shaped like a dragon

Mt Field National Park

Driving up to Lake Dobson. The old forest is very old.

Lake Dobson. There is a walk around the lake. Sticky was on the lookout for fish.



We didn't spot any.
These Pandanis are like a sort of palm tree. However, Lake Dobson is over 1500m above sea level, so these are extremely rare. And very slow growing. Some of these could be 1000 years old.


I love the variety in the tree trunks.

We found this little fella just catching a few zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Who Me?"
Another little walk took us into an area where pepper trees grow.
And this is a moving bed of rocks. There is water deep below that keeps the river of rocks slowly moving.

And this little fella was found under our drainage outlet. He is called a Pademelon.
And I photographed this little echidna just as we were leaving the park

On A Lighter Note. The Beautiful Lake Pedder

Sticky will be returning here for some fishing... Quite Beautiful!

Florentine Hippies

The Upper Florentine Hippy camp. The longest standing protest camp in Australia (I was told). These guys are trying to prevent logging in the National Forest and have built their camp right over the logging road. Police have tried to dismantle the camp several times, but have now given up. These guys climb up into the Mountain Ash (up to 100m!) and do sit-ins.

The entrance is built over the logging road.
It is pretty grotty. We met a really sweet mother of four kids (all under 5) who was barefoot and totally out of it. Doesn't say too much for the situation.

Attention Pauli!

Is this the famous Billy Cart that your brother built and made you try out down the steep road? He seems to think it might be. We found it in the information centre at Strathgordon on the way to the Gordon Dam...

Gordon Dam. An Engineering Feat

The intake to the turbines for the Gordon Dam. The water drops 183 metres down this hole to the turbines. Massive.

A little picture to show you how it works...
And this is it. Simply huge.
We walked down all these steps.
To stand on the dam wall (damn!) ... it was soooo cold!
I am sooo scared! Such a long drop down.
But better than in the olden days, when they had to take that flying fox to get across to the other side!
The Gordon River (or what is left of it).
A long drop.
A very big staircase. Not going down there.