Day 152 – Salamanca Markets

Allow me the indulgence to whinge for a paragraph (and no promises, but I will probably whinge more). I feel somewhat cursed that our car seems to always have mechanical problems on weekends. We had a small window of opportunity this morning between getting our rental car and getting to a shop to buy parts. I had this completely un-based assumption that we’d be able to find a replacement part at either Super Cheap Auto or Repco, so I headed there first. No luck at either of them, so tried a plumbing store (possible, but was going to be very large, and rather expensive). The plumber suggested I try Bunnings (a hardware shop), and to my amazement, they had something that looked just about right – a 19mm x 19mm x 13mm barbed fitting. The only problem was it was plastic, and probably not the best idea with the heat of the engine bay, but it was only 99 cents, so there was no harm in buying it even if we don’t use it. My biggest mistake was not calling the Mitsubishi parts store in town, until it was too late – they shut at 12PM. On. The. Dot. I had confidence in this irrigation piece to get us out of trouble for a day or two, after all the original piece was plastic, and it had lasted for nearly 20 years…

Every Saturday in Hobart there is a large outdoor market held in Salamanca. Being fans of food, and seeing that it was Saturday, we made our way down there in our rental car. Apart from the setting (nice gardens surrounded by beautiful historic buildings) it was pretty similar to most of the other markets that we have been to – arts/crafts, clothes, tourist souvenirs (map of Tassie t-shirts…), second hand books, food products (jams, olives, cheese, etc) and food stalls. It’s all quite expensive for what it is, and I know that, but I’m a sucker for food stalls. I literally want to try everyone and the challenge is not to eat too soon, without knowing what your options are, so we did a quick lap of the area (which actually took some time).

We eventually bought a pork bratwurst on a bun (delicious), a wallaby burrito (delicious) and some Dutch fruit donuts (also delicious). Risa also bought other sweets to snack on (strangely enough, also delicious). Food is definitely the highlight of a market for me.

The tow truck driver made a joke last night about Tasmanian weather, ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes’. Not exactly true today, but with the intense winds blowing all day, showers came and went rather quickly. The wind must have been a nightmare for stall holders…

The markets finish up at 3PM, so since we’d seen all that we wanted to see we went for a bit of a walk along the waterfront. There are numerous interesting buildings, and plenty of fresh seafood available for sale (and I’m still surprised that Risa didn’t buy any).

From town you can see Mt. Wellington quite clearly (it’s huge, it’s hard to miss). I could see that it wasn’t the nice sunshine that we had down here, but at the same time, it didn’t look that bad. So, we got into our little Hyundai rental car and headed up to the ~1300m lookout. Half-way up it started to rain a little, and we noticed that there wasn’t actually that great a view down over Hobart (due to the rain). I wasn’t going to give up that easily though, so I kept driving up the busy, narrow, twisty road. We got close to the top and the gentle rain had turned into heavy lashing rain. The tow truck driver’s words echoed in my head, ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes’. So we waited a while in the car park at the summit, the whole time being violently shaken by each gust of wind. I was watching the weather radar, looking for a break in the rain, but there wasn’t anything on the horizon. Still, when the rain eased off for a minute I grabbed my camera (and my raincoat) and made my way towards the lookout. I think I’d travelled a whole two car spaces before I was being lashed by the driving sideways rain. I know I’ve said it before, but this wind really was like nothing I’ve experience before. It actually blew the lens cap off my camera, and I had to run after it (it’s a special puck for a 14-24 lens, not something that I can easily replace). It came amazingly close to the edge of the mountain (cliff) before it got stuck in some shrubs. As I was running to catch it, one of my thongs blew away, but luckily it didn’t get that far either… I was actually starting to realise that it was a really bad idea leaving the car and ran (holding my thongs) to the nearest shelter to wait out this current patch of rain. The corrugated iron sheets on the roof were flapping and groaning under stress, the rain was completely horizontal and was visibly shaking the cars in the car park. I got a slight chance so I took it, but even trying to walk in to the wind was like nothing I’ve experienced, there was so much resistance it felt like I was walking underwater. I got back to the car, less than three minutes after I left, and I was rather wet, though relieved that nothing bad had happened. At the same time, feeling the huge energy of nature was exhilarating!

We returned back to Deli-chan so I could fix the broken heater pipe and we could once again be on our way. But, it wasn’t so easy. Firstly, it was raining. Secondly, this t-piece was at the back of the engine bay, behind lots of other stuff, so access was rather limited. Thirdly, the old piece was so rotten that it was a nightmare to try and remove. Finally, the new piece was ever so slightly too large, so I had to admit defeat, pay for another night of accommodation and wait for Monday and hope that the shop in town has one in stock…

I was extremely cold, rather wet, and quite down that we were going to be stuck somewhere again… not to mention another repair bill (a little better than the others, but still, we’d hoped for smooth sailing after Perth). To console ourselves, we bought some of the amazing smelling wood-fired pizza from the caravan park. Yup, a day of eating comes to an end.

１５２日目　　１０月　１２日（土）　サラマンカマーケット

今日の朝は保険会社とどこまで保険が下りるか相談してから、結局レンタカーは火曜日まで借りられるけど、宿泊料はこっち持ちになりました。

朝は、修理の為の部品を見つける為、ホーバーのあちこちを回って部品集め。
なんだかんだでそれがお昼過ぎまで続き、ようやく朝に行く予定だったサラマンカ　マーケットに行けたのは1時ごろ。

街の外れに車をとめて、港沿いのサラマンカというエリアへ向かいました。

それにしてもものすごく風が強い！　ラジオでは、最大瞬間風速８５kmといってました。

お天気は、お日様がさし、風が止むとけっこう気持ちいいポカポカ陽気。
だけどこれは５分と持たずぐに風が強くなって、曇ってくると寒い。　そして雨が降ってくるの繰り返し。

サラマンカ　マーケットは、ホーバーの港付近のサラマンカというエリアで、ここは植民地時代の捕鯨やその他の貿易で栄えたエリアで、未だに多くの石造りのすてきな倉庫が残され、レストラン／バー、ブティックが並ぶ小さいながらもオシャレなエリアです。

マーケットで売られている品々は、タスマニアで生産されているものが中心で、木の良い香りのするまな板など木のクラフト品、チーズ、ハチミツ、お土産品などなど。

四方からおいしい香りがぷんぷん漂ってくるので、誘惑がいっぱい、、、

沢山の人と、ステキな音楽を演奏するパフォーマーもいるので、とっても賑やかです。

ロスは、大好物のジャーマンソーセージをまず購入。　ジューシーでうまーい。

私は、“フルーツ　レザー”と書かれたなぞのキャンディー的なものを購入。

薄っぺらっくって、確かに色付きのレザーのようで、でも透き通っているのでステンドガラスのようにカラフル。

色んなフレーバーがあって迷ったけど、結局アプリコット＆プラムという半分黄色で半分濃いピンクのものを＄３で購入。

理解するところ、どうやら日本の“のし梅”みたい。のし梅のように厚みはなくぺらっぺらだけど、味は確かにのし梅のような感じかな。　　砂糖も加えていないらしいのでヘルシーかな？　　　たぶん予想では、ジャムを作ってそれにちょっとゼラチンを足して、薄く伸ばして乾燥刺せるのかな？
今までいた事がなかったので、新しい味の発見でした。

その後は、ワラビーのお肉が入ったメキシコのブリトーを購入。　よいスパイスが効いていて、ワラビーのお肉も柔らかくて美味しい。　そういえば他のお店でもワラビーのお肉のなんかのメニューを見たけど、これはオーストラリアで初めて。　　ふつうはカンガルーのお肉だけど、タスマニアには大型のカンガルーがいなくて、ワラビーしかいないのかな？？

野菜もスーパより安かったので、バナナ、りんご、お豆、トマトを購入。　いっぱい買ったけど、これで＄１１

そして締めにデザート。　オランダのドーナッツ。　丸くて、レーズンが入っていて、上に粉砂糖がかかってる。　　味は子供の頃お母さんが作ってくれた美味しい手作りドーナッツに似てて、ちょっと懐かしくって嬉しくなりました。　　ずーっと手作りドーナッツ食べさせてもらってないから、次回帰った時おねだりしてみよう笑

その後は、ぶらぶらと港の辺りをお散歩。　　パステルカラーに塗られた古いとってもかわいらしい建物がいい感じ。

シーフードのレストランやテイクアウェイが何件かあったり、MONAへ行くフェリーもここから出航します。

車へ戻る道のついでにまたマーケットに寄ってきました。　最初に見てすっごく美味しそうだった、ショートブレットのなかにキャラメルとクルミが入った、六花亭的なみるからに旨々なお菓子を買っちゃいました。　　思った通りの濃厚なバターとキャラメルの味で絶品でした。
食べてばっかり笑

天気もその時点では、晴れていたので、ホーバーの街のすぐにある標高１５００mの山までドライブ。

途中からものすんごい嵐に変わるも、クレイジーなロスはそのまま天気の回復を願ってどんどん山道をドライブ。　　舗装はされているものも、１５００mの山なだけに、かなり時間がかかって私はうとうと。。（外の景色も見えないし！）

山頂は、こないだの人生史上1番強風だと思ったグレートオーシャンロードの記録を打ち破る強風と豪雨でした。　（ロス曰く、私は、全く外に出る気なし笑）

ホーバーの街を見渡せる絶景らしいですが、グレーな雲しかみえまへん。

その後は、キャラバンパークに戻り、ロスが車の修理に取りかかるも、最初の数十分以外嵐で、作業は進まず、必要な部品も足りなかった為、もう一晩泊まる事に。

天気も悪いし、落ち込んだ気分をあげるため今晩は、キャラバンパーク内にあるレストランのウッドファイヤーオーブンで作ったピザのちょっと贅沢な夕食。　　うまかった、、、

明日は、晴れるといいけど、、、正直、雨と強風ばかりのタスマニアにもうちょっと飽き飽きしてきちゃいました、、、