The first thing I did today was to go to the Salamanca Market.  It is a happening in Hobart every Saturday which I planned to attend before we left the States.

At first I had the feel of the Saturday Market in Portland, but I soon realized that only a few of the booths have hand-made items.

I seriously thought about buying a woven scarf from this woman.

I even went to the ATM to get money for it, but came to my senses before I purchased something I don’t need.

I wandered around the market watching people by things.  There were many, many food booths and several vegetable stands.

It was fun just walking around Salamanca.  There were several alleyways to explore.

I found the Salamanca square and took a photo of the sculpture that was in the middle of the square.

All of a sudden I realized that I was late for meeting Rose to take the ferry to Mona.  It is an art museum that is built right into the rocks.  Well, I missed the ferry, but they immediately put me on a bus and I arrived the same time Rose arrived.

The first thing I noticed was the sculpture of what looked like a cement truck.

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As we entered the floor for the first exhibit, we saw a water wall.   As the water cascaded down the wall, words would appear.

It was a brand new exhibit on the Evolution of Modern Art.  The variety of media was fun to see.  There were painting, woodblock prints, sculptures, and interactive rooms.   We carried an audio device that helped us to understand some to the artwork. I took some photos.

When we went to the “Lorry” (a new word for me), the said there was art in the 3rd door.  Rose and I waited to go in that door just to check it out.  Well they had mirrors in the toilet that projected your bottom onto the wall in front of you.  We didn’t try it.

We found most of the art items in the new exhibit very interesting.  The regular exhibit was sometimes very strange and confusing..  All in all we spent about 3 1/2 hours there.

Then we caught the ferry back to Hobart.

Port Arthur used to be the most visited place in Tasmania.  Now they are in 2nd place because Mona has taken over 1st place.

We went back to our hotel and I was picked up by Tony …

…to go to the Bonorong Wildlife Rescue to see the animals at night.  I didn’t want to leave Tasmania without seeing a Tasmanian Devil.  We drove about 30 minutes out-of-town.  I was the only one on this tour and it was a blast.

There was a mob of very happy Eastern Grey Kangaroos.  Tony gave me bags of food to feed them.  Only 3 or 4 of them were hungry.  One actually grabbed the paper bag right out of my hands and ate it.

Then we visited Maria (a wombat).  I learned that wombat babies are about the size of a jelly bean.  She was so cute.

I was able to pet her and then she went right back to eating the grasses in her enclosure.

Our next stop was at the enclosure for the Tasmanian Devils.  Newborn Devils are about the size of a grain of rice.  They have about a 3 week gestation period. One female Devil can give birth to 50 joeys.  They scramble for attention, but the mom only has 4 teats so the ones that can scramble the fasted are the ones that survive.

When it was time to feed them, Tony asked me to put a thin latex glove over my hand so I wouldn’t get the raw meat on myself.  Then he took ahold of my wrist so he could pull me back quickly if the Devil tried for a piece of me instead of the food.

They jumped up to grab onto the meat.  As per Tony’s instructions I held on tightly for a bit and then let the meat go.  The two Devils then fought a bit over the meat.

Bert, the Koala Bear was absolutely adorable.  Koalas also give birth to babies that are only the size of a jelly bean.

Tony took me to see Randal, the Echidna.  Enchiladas are Monotremes which means that they lay eggs.  The only surviving examples of monotremes are all indigenous to Australia and New Guinea, although there is evidence that they were once more widespread. The existing monotreme species are the platypus and four species of echidnas.

Randall licked the food out of my hand with his long tongue. Echidnas have a long sticky tongues which helps them to collect their diet of small invertebrates including  ants, termites, grubs, larvae, and worms.  They can eat up to two kilograms of termites in one meal!

The tawny frog-mouthed birds did not seem to be very hungry.  Tony told me even that once food touched their beak, it couldn’t be fed to another one even if the bird did not eat the food I offered.  I held the food over their heads and one of them finally let me put the food into its mouth.

There was an albino brushtail possum.  They will never let him out into the wild again because he would be way to visible for other animals to get him.

At first I held the dish so he could eat out of it.

Then we just put the food onto the log and left it there for him to finish.

Brush tailed possum babies are about half the size of a jelly bean.

The spotted tailed quolls were very shy.  

They wouldn’t come too close so we just left food for them on various branches.

We also left food for the Eastern Quolls in another enclosure.

Then we went to see the Tasmanian Bettongs. Tony put out food for them in trays.  He he had to shoo away the birds who came for the food.  Finally one Bettong started eating from one of the trays.

Our last stop was with the Sugar Gliders.  They can glide through the air for about 50 meters.

They finally came out to eat from the tray I was holding.

I am so glad that I decided to do the night-time tour of Bonorong Wildlife Refuge.  It was a perfect time.  I highly recommend this adventure to anybody who gets to Hobart.

Today Rose and I went on a tour of Port Arthur.  It was established in 1830 as timber-getting camp using convict labour to produce sawn logs for government projects.  In 1833 Port Arthur was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.  First we had a guided tour from an excellent guide.

Prisoners were sent there from other countries. There is extensive information on the web about Port Arthur.   For most prisoners it became a life sentence. Even if they completed their punishment, they had no money to go home and no jobs to be found in Tasmania so they went back to prison.

Many, many people who live in Tasmania are descendants of the convicts who were housed there.  I didn’t take many photos but here are some of them.

Below is a view of the inside of Separate Prison which was used for more serious offenders.

On the way back from our walking around to see some of the buildings, I saw this fabulous tree.

Our boat ride took us close to the Isle of the Dead.

This island holds about 1000 dead people.  The majority of them have no stone to mark their grave.

Port Arthur was a bit depressing. I am happy to end this post with some photos of the places (Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen) we stopped to see on the way back to Hobart.

 

We also stopped at a chocolate factory where I, of course, bought some fudge and chocolate candy.

All in all these past few days have made this trip to Hobart wonderful.  I wish we had at least another week to explore the island of Tasmania.  There is so much more to see and do on this wonderful island.