On Top Of The World (Day 2)

Saturday was the second day of our trip and we kept it semi mellow and didn’t pack in too much. In the morning we went to Salamanca Market. This market is very large and very well known in Tasmania. Anyone that I spoke to about going to Tasmania that had been there before asked if we planned to go to this market, and if you Google Hobart one of the first attractions that comes up is the Salamanca Market. So Kim and I had somewhat big expectations for this market. We were also somewhat disappointed with this market. No doubt about this was a huge outdoor market with many many vendors and sights to see. We were thinking it was going to be more like the Victoria Market in Melbourne but it was not unlike any other outdoor market or flea market. We walked around and saw many different things, but for me, the highlight was the great big bratwurst sausage smothered in onions and condiments that I had. That was the one of the best sausages I have ever had! So big and sausagey! One funny thing that happened at the market was the bongo player. As we strolled through the crowd I could hear this great bongo music. As we walked it was getting louder, so I knew we were getting closer. I could see the crowd turning a corner onto the next lane and knew the bongo player would be sitting in a small clearing in between the stalls. Once the crowd cleared I expected to see a grown man possibly with dreads and a saggy knitted cap on, or some sort of hemp derived clothing. His skin might be worn by the sun and weather from his travels as he busked for change in each town he went. Something along those lines, you know what I am talking about, but alas I did not see a sight such as this or anything near it really. Instead I saw a small fair skinned, red haired boy with a large cowboy hat and a collared shirt banging away like crazy on a bongo. He was excellent! I thought the music was great when I could hear it and thought it was a grown man, seeing that it was a wee boy just made it that much better. After the market we went back to the hotel, got the car and headed towards Mount Wellington.

Driving up Mt. Wellington was great as a passenger because I could look out and see the views getting better and better as we got higher and higher. When we left the hotel it was a fine day in Hobart with sun and patchy clouds. We could see some clouds looming near the peak of the mountain but hoped for the best. We stopped along the way to take some pictures of the views as we went up and up and up. Once reaching the peak we got out of the car to a very brisk temperature indeed. It is a good thing that I once inherited Leonard’s old jacket, lol, because it was a bit nippy. We guessed it was around 3 degrees or so and a wind to boot. This was the first mountain I had ever been on that was actually tall enough to be in the clouds. You can see in my pictures that there is a dome of clouds over the peak of the mountain, and we were actually looking down under the ground at the land below where it was a mostly sunny day. You could see for days and days on top of that mountain! I am sure that I could see my mom’s house if it was clearer. It was breathtaking and just amazing! You could see the entire city of Hobart and surrounds, all the mountains valleys and lakes. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. It is slightly too bad that we were shivering and shaking like a dog shitting razor blades at the top of that mountain. It was a smidge annoying to put up with that one group of annoying tourists that feel like they own the scene and try not to get in there way while taking about a zillion photos flashing the peace sign. Kim and I took a ton of pictures of the surrounding areas and the breath taking sights, and just in time too. Just after we were finished taking pictures a huge wall of cloud starting moving in around the peak of the mountain. It was really amazing to see that too. It really looked like a solid wall of cloud closing in on the mountain. We took a picture and you can see the clear wall moving in. In a matter of seconds the wall had closed in and all you could see was white. You could see around you but when you looked over the edge of the mountain all you could see was white. We couldn’t have timed our trip to the top any better if we tried. Once we left and started driving down the mountain it wasn’t very far until we were out of the cloud and you could see the sunny day in Hobart again. It was really cool. For the rest of the day we chilled in the hotel room and planned some of the next days adventures (well Kim looked stuff up online and this old girl had a cat nap, lol.)

For dinner we asked at reception what a good restaurant on the waterfront was. She recommended a few, one of which was the Drunken Admiral, but we ended up eating at Fish Frenzy. This place was quite good, and had huge portions of food for not a bad price. The only weird thing was that they served it in a big horn shape cone thing. It looked kind of horn of plenty you would see at Thanksgiving. It was strange indeed. So after that we retired to the hotel for an early night because we had a big big day planned for next day.