On our Own Again

For the last 2 weeks of our time in Tassie (January 21st to February 5th), we decided that it would be a good idea to rent a car. We have experienced driving on the left hand side of the road already when driving in Cairns, Australia, but this time it was for 2 weeks and it was with manual transmission. Ahh, what is life without challenges......I can say that as I was not the one driving *grin*. However, I will say that it almost feels more natural driving on the left side, it just takes some getting use to. Delia certainly did not have any trouble adjusting, but whenever we would turn, I would causally mention which side to stay on - just as a precaution, as it is easy to forget.

Already over 2 weeks in Tasmania and we have not even touched the surface - really! Having done some previous research, we new some of the places and things that we would like to do, but we still had to plan out our route and decide which things we were going to do, as unfortunately we could not do everything. After Dan and Mark dropped us off and we had our car, we headed for the historic Port Arthur. If looking at a map of Tasmania, it is a peninsula off the south east coast of the island. It is a beautiful area - stunning! It is historic for many reasons, but the main reason is for the prison. In 1830 Governor Arthur chose the Tasman Peninsula to confine prisoners who had committed further crimes in the colony. It was considered a "natural penitentiary", with the peninsula only connected to the mainland by a strip of land less than 100m wide; Eaglehawk Neck, where ferocious guard dogs and tales of shark-infested waters deterred escape. Between 1830 and 1877, 12,500 convicts did hard, brutal prison time at Port Arthur and for most it was hell on Earth, but those who behaved, often enjoyed better conditions than they had endured in England and Ireland. I don't know alot about the town as Delia and I did not take the tour (they had walking tours, boat rides and ghost tours at night that included dinner) , but I know that the town was sustained by convict-labour industries, including timber milling, shipbuilding, coal mining, shoemaking and brick and nail production. Despite the redemption as a major tourist site, Port Arthur remains a sombre, haunting place. In 1996 a deranged young gunman unleashed an indiscriminate fusillade of bullets and murdered 35 people and injured 37 more. He burned down a local guest house and was finally captured and imprisoned north of Hobart. On his file it was stamped, "Never to be Released". They say that the prison is haunted and visited by the spirits of the convicts. Okay, that is the limit of my history on Port Arthur! We did go and read some of the stories at the museum, but other then that, we stuck to the hiking in Port Arthur and it was beautiful. Before you judge us for not doing any of the history tours, let me state my case by saying, that it is really hard to do everything and hiking and the outdoors is what we love. Travelling is all about doing what you enjoy and to make sure that you experience the country and their culture; however you do that - well, that is my story and I am sticking to it!



The first day that we arrived in Port Arthur it was early afternoon and we were a little tired from travelling, so we decided to do something fairly easy and relax. We went to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Area to see the Tasmanian Devil. They are black, small and not really cute and cuddly, in fact kind of, well, ugly. That may be too harsh a word, but the way they growl and bite each other, it doesn't entice one to want to pick them up and pat them (they were probably thinking the same thing about Delia and I *grin*). Over the past 10 years, they have been on the decline especially in the east. It is mainly due to a cancer that has been infecting the Tasmanian Devil. They are currently doing research into what caused the cancer to begin with, how it is being spread, how to cure it and also the difference between the east and the west side of the island. They don't know alot, but with some of the testing they have done, they are concluding that in the east, the Tasmanian Devil population is more restricted due to the human urbanization and they have less area to roam and therefore, there is alot of inbreeding. And on the west, there is more room to roam and less inbreeding. This may result in the west, one having a stronger immune system that can one resist that cancer and two, if they did contract it, their bodies are able to fight it. There is alot more research needed and although they are not an attractive animal, they certainly do not deserve to die. The conservation area was touristy, but very interesting and even though they were in captivity, we saw the little creatures. It was a conservation area, so we also saw Kangaroos, wallabies and many birds (parrots, frog mouth, peregrine falcon and brown falcon). All the animals were injured and are being rehabilitated. From there we drove around town to decide what we wanted to do the next day. We had a fabulous dinner at Mussel Boys, having local fish and seafood; Oysters and mussel chowder to start and Tumpetter Fish for our main....mmmmmm.......! We stayed 2 nights at Teraki Cottages in Taranna (just outside Port Arthur). It was a rustic cottage that was huge. It also had a fire place in the living room that we took advantage of. The Owners; Colin and Margorie were very nice and definitely made our stay very comfortable. After dinner we went back to the cottage for a nice relaxing night by the fire and had a great sleep in what felt like, "Grandma's feather bed"!!! We had several hikes to chose from with everyone having their own favourites, so we just had to trust ourselves and go with our choice. I really don't think it would matter which one we chose as the peninsula is gorgeous and when you are hiking right by the sea, how can you go wrong. We decided on hiking to Cape Huay; 4 hour return hike to the edge of a sea cliff - it was absolutely beautiful. It was hard as you are hiking along the coast and eventually hiking up and down and back up the ridges to the point of the cliff. The point was outstanding and unlike other places, there were not signs like, "stand back", "no entry", "stay behind fence". Good or bad, you could walk wherever you wanted - right off the cliff if the urge hit you. Me, I stayed well back of the ridge, other than to take a peek. There are two famous sea stacks that you could see from Cape Huay. The Candlestick and the Totem Pole. We were told that there are climbers that will get dropped off by boat and climb up the Candlestick - crazy!!! It was scary enough where we were, I couldn't imagine climbing up that stack. As we sat and ate our lunch on the cliff, 300m above the water, all alone, in the bright sun with the view of the sea and the cliffs (ooops sorry, was that too much.....?????), we waved at all the people, crammed in a tour boat that made its way between the ridges and stacks. It was hard work getting there, but it is so worth it!

After the hike we drove to white beach for a quick walk and then to a lookout of Port Arthur, Cape Pillar, Cape Hauy and the surrounding area. After the touring around, we started to look for a place to eat, but by the time we started looking, everything was closed.....man, Tassie really does shut down early - we must make mental note to self - we obviously did not learn the first time!!! No worries though, we had enough food back at the cottage to make sure that we weren't going to go to bed hungry! Had a nice dinner at home in front of the fire and had another great sleep in "Grandma's feather bed". Tomorrow it is off for another adventure in Tassie!

Destination: Mount William National Park - the most north/west part of Tasmania