Port Huon and the Huon Valley are south of Hobart. Our second day with the car we set off in that direction, also planning to ascend Mount Wellington which is just west of the city. The day turned into one of those where not much worked out as we'd planned. We first discovered we had picked the day of the "Point to Pinnacle" half marathon, when hundreds of people run up Mount Wellington from the city. This meant the road was closed, and we spent about half an hour sitting in stationary traffic waiting for the police to let us through.
So we set of instead for the famous Willie's Apple Shed in the Huon Valley, which promised an interesting visit to an apple-growing operation, and of course coffee! We should have checked their website - when we arrived half an hour later we found it we were still an hour too early for opening time. Instead we carried on south.
This road goes deep into the south of Tasmania, and up into the forests, but we really only had time to go to Greeveston. There it was actually very hot in the sun, so after a short wander through the town we headed north again.
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| A striking wooden statue in Greeveston of a respected local doctor - Doctor Kyle. |
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| The Huon River near Port Huon. |
Perhaps the most interesting stop of the day was at the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin, where they practise traditional methods of wooden boat manufacture and refurbishment, with a little modern technology thrown in. The Huon River provides fairly extensive and sheltered waters for boating, and on this day there was a regatta of traditional boats on the river.
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| The Wooden Boat Centre sits beside the Huon River, in Franklin. |
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| Huon Pine is a unique and excellent material for boatbuilding. |
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| A kayak from light timber covered in a fibreglass shell. |
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| The Wooden Boat Centre. |
