28th January 2010
Like many ports we’ve previously visited in France, Devonport is kind of a non-descript transit location with some slightly weird people hanging around. We’re staying here tonight, right next to the ferry terminal and at first glance the hotel didn’t look like very much, but our room was very nice. From our window we could see the Spirit of Tasmania leave at 9pm (and feel it because the whole room shook!) and our boat arrive at 7am.
Most of our time in Devonport was spent catching up with folks at home and booking tours and accommodation over the interweb.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tassie, but it is a bit like stepping back in time 40 years, not just in terms of the buildings and roads but also technology. It seems Telstra is the only network with any real coverage here and since we’re with Optus we only get coverage in the main cities. Also there aren’t that many internet cafes, we found one in Launceston and there’s only one in Devonport. It’s fine for a few days, but I can imagine it would be difficult to handle after a few weeks.
Tasmania is very much about the nature and wilderness of the place, plenty of great walks and hikes. A wonderful location for getting away from it all, very relaxing but in many senses it feels like the poor relation of more visited locations, lacking the investment that places like Queensland enjoy.
We did go out and explore the city a bit, which has just one main shopping street then over to the bluff and the lighthouse to take a look out over the Bass Straights where we would be heading on our 9 hour ferry ride tomorrow.
