The next day we rode through more parched autumn landscape past a lake with black swans to Hobart.

The tent pitched in the show grounds we set off on the hour or so long walk to the MONA – Museum of Old and New Art. Basically the fancy private collection bought from gambling winnings that couldn’t be taken out of the relevant country in cash. I’m not going to go into the detail here as you can probably find much more accurate information online.

The museum is mostly underground and has a bar too. You get given an ipod style device with all the info on it – text and audio. It figures out what pieces are near you and lets you scroll through whatever interests you.

The pamphlets and info are laid out with a great sense of humour.

The collection is in all rather dark and macabre. But there are lots of interesting pieces, like the printer that is hooked up to Google and prints the most searched word in water drops.

Or the head that is full of things inside, lit up by strobe lights and you can look in through windows.

Or the wall of vaginas?!? Lots and lots of clay models of different looking ones. Hm….

An unopened mummy is in a dark room full of water that looks like black glass or a bottomless pit. A walkway leads to the mummy and you get the sense that you fall into an abyss if you misstep. Next to the mummy is a screen showing scans of what is inside the sarcophagus.

There is a fairy tale still life made up of a hedgehog and dead insects.

And a guy sits still having sold his tattoo (a work in progress) as a piece of art.

And heaps more…

Back outside is a giant iron truck, the pieces for which have been laser cut.

The museum is on a vineyard and there are a restaurant and a wine bar. We allowed ourselves the luxury of a wine tasting and bought a super special yummy Pinot Noir just to remind ourselves what real wine tastes like. As you can imagine Skunk was somewhat confused.

The museum was absolutely outstanding and left deep impressions. I cannot really describe it all. We had the long walk back to the camp site to think about it and digest it all.