Trip Report Contents
Day One: The Tasman Peninsula (Seascapes and fog)
Quick Summary: About our
drive down the fire-ravaged Tasman Peninsula, a visit to Port Arthur, and the
crappiest lunch I can recall.
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Sunday morning we got up
fairly early, had a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and went to fetch
the car. The breakfast was very Australian in its offerings, with stewed
prunes, boiled bacon, baked eggs, and other really fatty stuff. And, of
course, there was vegemite, the Australian staple.
Fetching the Car
By foot it was only about ten minutes to the car
rental office. Luckily we sorted things
out at the airport the previous day to rent the car from downtown and return to
the airport, for the same price. This
saved us the taxi fare out to the airport, and the time. Before long we were on our way out of Hobart,
on the left side of the road, headed toward the Tasman Peninsula.
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| Motoring on the left |
Aftermath of the Fires
Our initial destination was
the Port Arthur Historical Site, about 90 minutes from Hobart. Our route
took us first north and east, past the airport, and then south down the jagged
strip of land.
Along the way we passed through several areas that had
been burned by the intense summer 2012-13 wildfires. Some of these areas
were just small patches, while others were vast swathes and whole
mountains. We passed through towns that had been burned as well. We also saw some pretty impressive seascapes, cliffs, and other interesting things.
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| Burnt landscape |
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| Burnt landscape |
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| Me, with a foggy seascape behind |
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| Theme of the day: water and fog |
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| Boats in the water, with burned hillsides in the background |
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| Beautiful seacliffs, shrouded in fog |
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| Seacliffs and fog |
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| Fog and water |
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| Philip with fog and the sea at his back |
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| Tessellated Pavement is natural stone that has been subjected to the pounding waves |
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| Tessellated pavement |
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| At the water |
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| Tessellated Pavement |
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| Fire damage: destroyed houses and burned hillsides |
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| More fire damage |
The Crappiest Lunch … Ever. Ever.
We eventually got to Port
Arthur and went in for tickets. Part of the visit is a boat ride out into
the harbor. Spaces on the boat are timed and ours was not for another
two-plus hours. We hadn’t eaten lunch, so we looked into eat at the
on-site café. The line was so long and the seating area so full that we
decided to get back into the car and head to one of the places we saw on the
way in. (Spoiler alert: this was a very bad idea.)
The first place we went
to did not serve lunch and was closed. We ended up at a place called the
Eucalypt for what was the worst meal I could recall having. It was
terrible! Philip ordered fish and chips, which really turned out to be
little more than frozen fish. I had a burger, which had clearly been
microwaved. It was all disgusting and not edible. And, it cost
almost $40!
At Port Arthur
Back at the historical site, we scouted around
the grounds a bit before our sailing time. The settlement at Port Arthur was essentially a colonial-era prison camp, using prison labor to extract natural resources. More recently, in 1996, it was the sight of a mass-shooting, which spurred Australia toward very strict gun control.
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| Welcome to Port Arthur |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Boats in Mason Cove |
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| Mason Cove |
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| Big aloe plant |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur, looking out at Mason Cove |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
On the boat, we basically
made a sweep of the harbor that lasted about half an hour. A narrator
pointed out sights, gave historical perspective, and discussed the area.
The weather wasn’t very cooperative at all!
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| On Mason Cove, sailing from Port Arthur |
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| Sailing Mason Cove |
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| Mason Cove, looking out at the entrance to the Southern Ocean |
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| Mason Cove seacliffs |
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| Sailing Mason Cove |
After the boat we saw the
rest of the historical site.
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| Fountain |
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| Flowers |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Tree, framed by the ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Port Arthur ruins |
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| Tree-lined lane |
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| Tasmanian sheep |
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| Beautiful trees |
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| Tasmanian pasture, on the Port Arthur site |
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| Idyllic scene of flowers and ruins |
Seeing the Seascape
Leaving the historical
site we stopped at several of the geographical interests on the
peninsula. The scenery was spectacular and the geographical oddities were
so interesting.
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| Seascape |
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| Seascape |
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| Seascape |
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| Seacliffs |
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| Seascape |
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| Seascape |
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| Me, with ocean and seacliffs over my shoulder |
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| I loved these jagged cliffs. We saw them all over the coasts |
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| This is a tunnel through to the ocean. The waves burrowed through the cliffside over many, many years |
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| The Tasman Arch. This is another example of how the ocean burrowed through the rock |
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| The Tasman Arch |
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| The Tasman Arch |
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| Seascape |
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| Seascape |
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| Seascape |
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| Rocks and cliffs in the sea |
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| Same scene, with greater zoom |
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| More detail, with the cliffs and rocks in even greater detail |
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| This is called the Blowhole, another instance where the ocean has burrowed through the cliffside |
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| The Blowhole |
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| The Blowhole |
Back to Town
By this
point the daylight was waning and we were keen to get back into Hobart before
it became dark. Some signs we came across on the drive back:
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| We didn't see any that day, but we did a couple of days later |
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| This must be a generic sign that also applies to wallabies, because there aren't native kangaroos on Tasmania |
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| Okay, okay, I won't go 100, especially if it's going to get blood (or red paint) on my shoes |
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| Barely captured this sign, but it's a warning that wombats are in the area and not to hit them |
We stopped at a supermarket and found ourselves back at the hotel by about seven o’clock. For dinner that night we settled on an Indian place we’d seen the night before and soon after retired for the night.
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