Despite having a severe dislike of getting out of bed early, I always try and ‘get on the road’ as early as possible for my walks in case the weather changes for the worse during the day – the earlyish starts give me all the chances in the world to walk as far as I can. It was no different last Monday. I left home not long after 6.30am (yes I know many of you would still have been snoring) and bussed into Hobart. I walked down to the intersection with the major thoroughfare at Davey St and Evans St near the wharf area. Looking around, notable landmarks for locals surrounded me.
The chimney of the beautiful 19th century sandstone Gasworks now reinvented into a HOGS restaurant and a bottle shop, sits on one corner.
A warehouse-like building for Tas Ports on another corner.
The apartment block for residents and tourists known as Zero Davey on another.
The concert hall of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at one end of the Grand Chancellor Hotel on the other.
By 7.15am I had walked to the intersection of Hunter St with Davey St. There are a considerable number of information boards along this street providing lots of information about the history of the area. This was the area where the first European settlers started the colony after giving up on Risdon Cove on the eastern shore of the River.
One side of the street is lined with buildings many of which were built in the 19th century.
The other side of the street has the wharf space which is normally used by fishing boats: for example, the crayfish/lobster boats. Look at how silken soft the water is. Wonderfully colourful.
I left Hunter St at 7.25am at the intersection with the Franklin Wharf street that extends parallel to the waters of the Derwent River. If you were to walk along Hunter St and not be note taking and clicking photographs, it would take you a maximum of two minutes to walk. But if you want to stop and look and read then allow longer.
Walking the Derwent River 