After 3 nights at Cradle Mountain our next and final destination in Tasmania was a 7 night stay in Hobart. Before our trip I was asked why we didn’t spent some nights in other places, why the 7 night stay in Hobart? It was an easy question to answer. For my wife and I we have found family holidays with a child under 2 far more relaxing when we don’t have to pack up and setup every couple of days. This is particularity the case when travelling with infant items (portacot, pram, extra luggage etc..). There was also another good reason for the extended stay in Hobart, there is just so much to see and do in the area!
Originally we were going to combine the driving with some sightseeing but we woke to a very cold and windy day. So we decided to take the most direct route to Hobart from Cradle Mountain with only one stop in the historic town of Ross.
Our drive from Cradle Mountain to Hobart.
There were a few reasons why we decided to stop at Ross. Firstly, we had heard of the Ross Bakery which has been in operation since 1860. Apparently it still uses the original wood fired oven. We had also heard of Ross bridge, one of the oldest bridges in Australia. It was built by convicts in 1836.
So we decided to break up the trip with a stop in Ross for lunch at the famous bakery followed by some time at the famous Ross Bridge. When we arrived the wind had really picked up and it was very cold outside. The village itself was beautiful though and being winter, large leafless trees lined the streets.
We parked in front of the bakery and were surprised at how empty the place seemed. Before we got out of the car my wife saw a note on the front door, “Closed for winter”. It must be really quiet for business in winter!
Fortunately, it was a minor setback as we found another bakery a few hundred metres down the road. My wife and daughter didn’t want to leave the car because it was so cold outside so we all had sausage rolls and a sweet treat in the car for lunch. Then we were off to see Ross Bridge, well I was off to see Ross Bridge. My wife and daughter stayed in the car while I took a few photos.
Even though we didn’t end up spending much time in Ross it looked like the kind of place we would really enjoying visiting again in the future, particularly on a better weather day. One benefit of the cold and gloomy day was that we made great time. We arrived in Hobart at 3 pm and immediately checked in to our hotel for some much needed rest. When we opened the door to our room we were amazed at how big it was. There were 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living area and a kitchen. What a perfect place to spend the next 7 nights.