FREYCINET TO HOBART - JULY 6

After breakfast this morning we began our drive south to Hobart.  The nice thing about driving on a smallish island is that driving doesn't require much navigation.  It was such a pretty drive, I'm a bit sorry we did our drive from Launceston to Freycinet in the pitch black.  Sigh. Maybe another trip. 

The photo above is looking back across Oyster Bay at the Freycinet peninsula.  On the left of the mountains in the distance you can see the Hazard Peaks that were close to where we were staying at the lodge.

Another shot of the same thing - it was also a gorgeous day, as well.

The southern end of the Freycinet Peninsula (to the south of the first few photos)

Charlie is standing next to the Spikey Bridge.  It was built by convicts as part of a carriage way to Hobart. 

Black swans on a lagoon seen from the road.

The gum trees along the highway were wonderful.  There were several stands of them.

The town in the photo above is called Triabunna.  It has a ferry to the island you can see in the distance, a part of the Maria Island National Park.  The town's setting along the water was great, too.

We drove along the ocean for the first two thirds of the trip to Hobart.  We then went into the mountains for a bit.  Not sure which river you can see - there were about three that seemed to be along the route we took, and it wasn't posted.

Once out of the mountains, we crossed two causeways on the Tasman Highway just outside of Hobart, the photo is of one of them.  It was a lot like the Florida Keys (only a LOT colder).

Hobart can be seen in the photo above.  It sits at the base of Mt. Wellington, snow capped and usually (based on our one-day look) covered in clouds.
Once we got to the hotel on Davey Street, the guy at the desk told us that our "harbor view" room couldn't be had because they had accidentally overbooked.  Charlie, who was tired from driving for two and a half hours on the left side of the road in a car we DO NOT recommend (a KIA), wasn't having any of their problems.  He looked Charlie-annoyed - not dangerous - but definitely peeved.  The hotel guy looked at Charlie, went to his manager, and we got an upgrade harbor view room.  Charlie will be happy to sell his peeved look to anyone who needs it in the future. Here's the view from our room.

The boats in the foreground are filled with lobster pots.  Here's a close up.

After we settled in the hotel we wandered around town for a quick look and for lunch.

We had lunch in a coffee shop in Salamanca Place (an old market that now has lots of trendy stores, restaurants, bars, and the like.  The place was called the Coffee Doctor.  We had excellent barley-vegetable soup.  While we ate, we noticed their coffee-dripper experiment.  Fresh water at the top, course ground coffee in the middle, coffee at the bottom.  Wierd, but fun.

My tour book had a quick walk around town which we followed.  Most of the walk was around the dock area.  The photo below is an even closer view of the lobster pots.

A look back at some old Hobart buildings from the harbor.  Hobart is the second oldest town in Australia.

Salamanca Place outside of the square.  Very English looking, lovely shopping and eating.

Tomorrow we get a tour (of the city? environs?) and a lunch.  Then we'll have tomorrow to stomp around some more.  Friday, we drive to the airport (Hobart to Sydney) then Sydney to San Francisco then San Francisco to LA.  If all goes well, we leave Hobart at 10:40 am and land in LA at 4:38 pm.  Obviously, lots of hours in that day.  Gak.