It was starting to feel like we had allocated too many days to Hobart and we felt quite constrained without having a car. Today was market day but found there wasn’t much else we could tackle without a car, so the logical thing to do was to hire a car again, just for the day.

Salamanca Market

Salamanca Market is Tasmania’s largest market and was celebrating 50 years this year. There were over 300 stalls so we were bound to find something we’d like and hopefully it wouldn’t be too touristy, right?

We had noticed lots of scooters available for hire littered around town. Strangely enough, every single one we encountered had a helmet dangling from its handlebars, which was very surprising to me. People in Sydney liked to ruin the random hire bikes that popped up around the place. Lots were simply littered in inaccessible places (like up a tree or in a river).

So we decided to hire one each as the walk would’ve taken around 25 mins. I was a bit uncomfortable and never got into the swing of it and ditched it three quarters of the way there. The footpath wasn’t the greatest and I was having difficulty braking nicely.

We arrived at 10:00 am. There were quite a lot of people and it wasn’t very “COVID safe” lol. Unfortunately, we didn’t buy much at all.

I bought some Boysenberry jam, Blackberry liquer jam from Joanna’s Jams and some pepperberry mustard. The jam stall was great, I was able to try as many as I wanted. I’d been wanting to find a good Boysenberry jam as I find the one at the supermarket from NZL too sweet and not tart enough.

A purchased some cinnamon doughnuts (AUD 3) and fudge (1 piece for AUD 2) to nibble on. They were okay.

The market was indeed quite large and took some time to walk throughout the whole thing. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. A lot of the stalls were selling pricey goods for the home, and we really didn’t have the capacity for that unless something really caught my eye.

Before leaving we shared what sounded like a fancy hot dog but was actually a pretty normal one. It was here where we were charged a card surcharge for the very first time on this trip. Yes, that’s right, them Tasmanians DON’T RIP YOU OFF. Or maybe it’a a case of Tasmania being slow and behind everybody else.

A spent some time on his phone on Car Next Door and next minute, he had hired a car. We took a bus to South Hobart and at around 12:00 pm, picked up an older Corolla, but it was in good condition overall.

Rosny Hill

We had visited Cripps Bakehouse very early on our first day to pick up bread, but it was actually on my list for a different reason. Apparently, this very popular bakery was famous for its hot chips. Now that we had a car, we could visit it easily again. I also had Rosny Hill lookout on my list so it was a two birds with one stone kind of situation. We got there and wow there really was a queue, as it was lunch time. I simply got a small chips (as I did not want to be full; we had more things to eat later) and back in the car to nearby Rosny Hill.

Chips with a view; can’t say no to that!

Now it may not look like much, but it was quite good, very addictive. It looks like it’s just salt and pepper but no, there’s something else in there, not sure what. possibly crack. They were nice and savoury and nothing like chicken salt.

Don’t forget the view! There was only one other person there whilst we were there. It wasn’t very popular at all, despite it being a weekend.

(Best viewed on desktop and in full screen mode)

Again, it looked like it was a nice clear day to visit the top of Mount Wellington! Unfortunately we would not have the time.

Richmond

Richmond is another historic town with well preserved sandstone buildings from the early C19th. It is a main stop on the way to Port Arthur from Hobart for modern tourists. It is known for the following:

• having the oldest gaol in Australia (1825)
• having the oldest bridge still in use in Australia (1825)
• having the oldest post office building in Australia (1832)
• having the oldest primary school still in use in Australia (1834)
• having the oldest Catholic Church still in use in Australia (1837)
• having the oldest Anglican Church still in use in Australia (1836)

Richmond Bakery

We stopped here for what would be our last scallop pie (AUD 9.50). As you can see, it had big chunks of scallop but the sauce was too gelatinous-y and was not that nice. Sad.

Richmond Gaol

Richmond gaol (AUD 12 for 1 x adult entry) is the oldest prison in Australia, built in 1825. This makes it older than Port Arthur. Interestingly, it was quite intact and everything we saw was mostly original.

It was strange in that it was also the smallest prison ever at 20 sqm, so it did not take long for it to be over crowded with visitors. The prison featured soliatry cells where prisoners could be held in darkness for long periods of time, depending on your sentence. Next to that was a room where I imagine people piled on top of each other due to the lack of space. And that was basically the prison! There was a kitchen next door in a separate building, a small yard, another building where the gift shop and entrance was and finally a two storey sandstone building which was where the Gaoler and guards lived.

Prisoners would only get 1 hour of exercise outside daily. They had very small rations comprising of 115g meat, 230g vege, 450g bread, 15g soap, 15g salt. Quite miserable. Prisoners stopped being sent here in 1853.

It didn’t take long to visit the site, which was unfortunate. I didn’t realise how small it would be!

After that we decided to take a walk down to the main street, Bridge street.

There was the town hall:

And the old courthouse:

Richmond Bridge

A bit further down the road was Richmond Bridge. This was another sandstone bridge built by convicts in 1825, making it the oldest bridge in Australia that is still in use. Its age is impressive but I did think Ross Bridge was nicer.

Walking back the way we came, we decided to walk down Bridge St to see what else was on offer. Whilst it was quaint, there wasn’t a whole lot to be honest, but there was a good handful of shops geared for tourists. It was really quiet but I suppose it was getting on in the day.

For arvo tea we stopped by Czegs’ Cafe, where we had a really good Medovik (honey cake, AUD 9.50). Really amazing texture, not super sweet, not too creamy, just a well done Medovik. There was a drizzle of light honey which I really enjoyed, so much so that I asked them where it was from. Unfortunately it was from a local beeskeeper that didn’t really sell to the public. It was really lovely honey.

With nothing else to see in town, and time was running out on our car hire, it was time to head back to Hobart. If money and time was no object then perhaps I would’ve seen the Old Hobart Town and the Pooseum. I did walk past the former and it did sound like it could have potential except it looked like it was a place that hadn’t updated or improved anything in the past 20 years; an aging tourist attraction.

On the way back we went to Barilla Bay Oyster Farm, which is right near the airport. We got one dozen oysters to go (AUD 14) for dinner. Then we drove back to the Tasman Inn to drop off the oysters into our fridge and returned the car.

Hobart Cenotaph

We took the bus back to town and had a walk to the Hobart Cenotaph to take in the view from the other side of Rosny Hill. The Cenotaph was in a very large park and the memorial itself was quite imposing.

Whilst the view was nice and we got a good look at the Tasman Bridge, obviously the view from Rosny Hill was better as you can see kunanyi.

Dinner

For dinner we kept it simple, seeing the night before kinda sucked. We got a Calabrese pizza (AUD 24) from the nearby Deep South Brewing Co., a couple of cans of fizzy alcohol from a BWS, the jar of pickled mussels and the dozen oysters we picked up earlier and ate it all in our hotel room.

The pizza was quite good and a little spicy. The olives were good.

The oysters were ok… not as good as Bruny Island and Melshell. I wondered when they were shucked, but even then it was clear at Melshell they had been shucked well before our arrival. It was a little fishy, not as “clean” tasting as Melshell, but tasted like oysters as I had known them before this trip. They were quite large too. A did not have many and it was up to me to polish them all.

The pickled mussels were the strangest thing, I cannot even recommend them. The texture of the mussels were not nice; it was kind of tough. It was up to A to finish them all, as there was no other time for us to eat them.

For drinks, A had another taste of Spreyton cider whilst I had picked some vodka fruity premix drink (Pals Mango and Pineapple), which was an awful awful choice.