Port Arthur

Thu Oct 9
9:56, Devil’s Lookout, Tasmania
What an amazing place! The Tasman Arch is a sandstone structure that had been eroded over time. I really miss my camera. It’s impossible to describe the place, beyond stunningly gorgeous. The drive leading up to the Tasmania National Park is a lot of rolling hills, some forests and pastureland for sheep and cows. Very green, and very much how I imagine the English countryside.

Touring with a bus is ok. But I think driving on your own would be far better. You’d be able to stop wherever you wished, for however long you wanted. There were some driving trail brochures that the visitor centre, so I am sure that they are easily accessible by car, even for the directionally impaired =P.

14:50, Port Arthur
Just finished walking around Port Arthur, which was a penitentiary until 1877. Very interesting place, and the audio tour was very good. You start with a playing card, and you use that to see what happened to the convict that the card represents. Then you tour the grounds. What a beautiful place for a prison. It’s a peninsula connected to the main island by a thin isthmus, Eaglehawk Neck, I think. Dogs used to be chained in a line across it. So savage that they had to be chained just out of reach of each other so they wouldn’t rip each other to shreds.

The harbour cruise on board the Maran is included. The water changes from emerald to jade green near the boat, indigo further out.

My ticket included lunch. Yummy yummy sandwich, soup, chocolate and caramel cake and apple berry juice were my picks. I ate at 11:30 and am still full.

The Isle of the Dead tour was also part of my silver pass (regular price is $66). Definitely recommend it. The little island was the cemetery, and the tour sheds light into a few of the more fascinating stories. Like the bloke that was sent here because he stole clothes from his father. His dad felt that he was out of control and wanted to teach his son a lesson. He never envisioned that he would be sent to a maximum security prison. Or the grave digger who thought he would die here and dug his own grave, checking on it everyday, and eventually leaving because he had a vision from the devil. Or how about the fact that the women all died from childbirth, or the complications resulting from it. The baby girl of one such woman as saved by 2 women of differing social classes nursing her. The descendants have visited last year.

An amusing story on the bus was how one convict attempted to escape by killing a kangaroo and putting on its hide and hopping away. When he came within sight, the guards, who had not seen fresh meat in a while promptly aimed for him. Realising this, he threw off the skin and was rejailed.

The bus tour was a bit rushed. Just a heads up that Experience Tasmania and Grayline are actually the same company. I still firmly believe that hiring a car is well worth your while, especially if you’re more than one traveller, and can split the costs of rental and petrol.