Day Eight - 20th July

A good nights' sleep at the Mercure and we even slept in until 8am.  Great buffet brekky and then we were off to explore Hobart.  We firstly walked around the Salamanca area and then drove south to the Shot Tower at Taroona - about 10 minutes drive away.  Nick and Jonathan climbed the 318 stairs to the top of the Shot Tower and I stayed down the bottom as I had climbed to the top on a previous visit and I was "freaked out" by the open tread stairs!

 Afterwards we dove back into Hobart and wandered around the Docks area and admired all the wonderfully old buildings and had a quick lunch.  Then it was back in the car and a five minute drive to the carpark of Cascade Brewery where we were to meet Chris and Judith for our "Louisa's Walk" tour.  We all thought that we were going to have a talk about the history of Hobart but the Louisa's  walk was far more interesting.  The tour was a true story about Louisa who convicted of stealing a loaf of bread in London in 1834 and sentenced to gaol for 7 years in Van Diemans Land.  The story told of her sentencing, her voyage to Hobart and then of her life in the "Female Factory" (not called women's gaols) in Hobart.  This Female Factory actually housed more inmates than at Port Arthur. The main gaol wall was still erect and some of the "serious" offenders cells (10' x 3") were still visible. Louisa was a model prisoner and was "let out" to be a servant for a wealthy Hobart family however she fell pregnant to her "master' so she was placed back into gaol where she subsequently had her baby daughter, Eliza.  Eliza was weaned after two weeks and Louisa was imprisoned in "hard labour" for six months for her crime of getting pregnant.  Unfortunately Eliza did not survive longer than a few months and is one of 900 babies/children to be buried in unmarked graves close to the prison site.  Luckily, Louisa paid her time and married a local brewer and lived happily ever after. We thoroughly enjoyed the play/walk/tour - it was a really sad story but gave real insight about how prison life existed during the 1800's.

After the Louisa's Walk tour which finished about 5pm we went back into Hobart and dined at the upstairs Mures Seafood Restaurant and the food was absolutely fantastic.  We can thoroughly recommend this restaurant if you are looking for fine dining in Hobart.  We topped off the evening by driving to North Hobart and walling around their restaurant area and purchasing Cold Rock ice-creams.  Then it was back to the Mercure to settle down for the night.