Mark Smalley

Saturday, 26 Mar - Bicheno
Our flight with Jetstar to Hobart goes fine, just a 20 min delay. No frills, but only $60 each for the 65 min flight. A $9 shuttle bus takes us in 25 min to our $85 hotel, www.astorprivatehotel.com.au . It's a 1920's place and is kept in the original style with lots of dark wood. Friendly and informal reception, consistent with the emails we've exchanged.

When we walk into the breakfast room, one of the guests bursts into tears and everybody is very quiet for a while.

We've had a lovely time with Pauline but it's good to be on our own again, and I expect she thinks the same way.

It's a chilly morning but sunny, the sun on the buildings reminds me of Hoppers Early Sunday Morning.
We visit the busy Salamanca Market. Plenty of stalls with clothes, food, crafts but not as tacky like some markets are.
A walk up some steps to Battery Place, now a very desirable area.
Through a couple of little parks towards the harbour. We look inside a gallery (www.despard-gallery.com.au ) and the owner gets the impression he's got customers for a $22000 Clifford Possum painting. It's hard to get away but we learn something about aboriginal art in the process. He mentions SOFA in Chicago, must look it up.
Two $4 sausages in rolls with cheese, sauerkraut, tomato and onions is our lunch.
We stumble across the 12th National Morris Minor Rally with 175 exhibitors. Great fun.
Another art gallery (www.artmob.com.au ).
30 min walk to the well established Botanical Gardens (www.rtbg.tas.gov.au ) and then back to the city to collect a $35 a day red Mazda 121 from www.aaacarrentals.com.au .
Bit of shopping for food at Woolworths, then pick up the bags from the hotel and at 1600 we're off to Bicheno. The 185 km takes 2h15m, not bad for small twisty (main) roads, but there's not much traffic.

We're booked into the Seaview Holiday Park (www.seaviewaccom.bigpondhosting.com ) for 2 nights. Didn't realise it but they seem to be associated with the Churches of Christ and this is in keeping with other places we've booked, the Christian Guesthouse in Bangkok and the Salvation Army in Hong Kong. Our $65 wooden big unit is self-catering and suits us fine. It's still a bit cold, 18c inside, but there's an electric heater.
The meal is a salad, with chocolate cake after.

The clocks go back an hour tonight, strange that NZ does it a week earlier.

For the first time I have no GPRS connection and so email is offline for a few days.

posted by Mark Smalley @ 6:27 PM