Adventure Bay to Swansea: Escape from Port Arthur

Friday

We'd timed Bruny Island pretty well, we were leaving on good Friday, when we were sure the masses would be coming in the opposite direction. We weren't in a desperate rush to get out of town though and we made time to relax in the caravan and eat our crumpets for breakfast. Afterwards, we tidied all of our things back into the car and checked out. On our way to the ferry, we stopped by a local chocolate factory in the hope we'd be able to pick up some chocolate for the ride over to the Tasman peninsular. Despite the advertisements of chocolate galore there wasn’t a crumb in sight. Instead, there was a lifetimes supply of fudge. To make up for the lack of choccy, we picked up some off cuts of coffee and walnut flavour and toffee flavoured fudge and headed off to catch our ferry. Bruny Island was clearly the place to be as we were only 1 of 5 vehicles making the trip back to the mainland. When we got off at Kettering though, it was a completely different story. For almost a mile, if not 2, cars, caravans, motorbikes and rvs were queued up, waiting to squeeze onto the ferry for a short Easter weekend getaway. We were pretty pleased to be heading in the opposite direction. We were passing through Hobart along the way, so we decided to break up the 3 hour drive with a short layover there. During our first stint in the city, there were a couple of things we'd missed that we wanted to get done before heading north. One was find a pin badge and the other was visit a burger restaurant that was highly rated by Lonely Planet. This is where Good Friday bit us on the behind though. We asked at the visitor information if there was any places we could find a pin badge with Hobart written on it. The lady told us there was a souvenir shop on the same block as the info centre (that we had somehow missed first time round) and after a quick google, she informed us it was open today. We walked along there but weren't surprised to find it closed up. While we were peering in through the door someone came up and said it was going to be closed all weekend. We resigned ourselves to the fact we may not be able to get one and moved on to our next destination. Tucked away in the suburb of north Hobart, Burger Haus was pretty hard to find.when we eventually did find it, we may as well have gone to McDonalds, as it was closed for the weekend too. We made do with a nearby bakery instead and got ourselves a sausage roll and a pie. We gave up with Hobart and decided to carry in to where we were staying for the night. We headed north across the Tasman Bridge and carried on round to Eaglehawk Neck on the Tasman Peninsular. We were staying at the Lufra Hotel and Apartments and had made it there by about 4 o'clock. Upon checking in, the receptionist asked us if we wanted to make a reservation for dinner as they expected it to be busy with both people staying in the hotel and locals who couldn't be bothered to rustle up some fish themselves on a bank holiday. We went for it a took the latest slot they had, which was still only 19:30 (I'll just pop in my observation here for my memory as much as for people reading. They don't seem to use the 24 hour clock in Australia. If something is happening at 7 o'clock in the evening, it is still written as 7:00). The hotels ratings and reviews had been fairly average when we'd looked them up, so when we got to our room, we were pleasantly surprised with how clean and spacious it was. We didn't dawdle inside and instead headed out to explore the area. Eaglehawk Neck is a very small town located on a natural bottleneck on the Tasman peninsular. So when driving along the road, the sea is pretty much either side of you, very similar to the Neck on Bruny Island. Our map said there were 3 sights to see in a row along the coast just next to us, so we headed to them in order to make the most of the beautiful bank holiday weather (at home that would be sarcasm but it genuinely was a beautiful day!). First up, we came across the Tasman Arch, which is a large rock arch along the coast, not dissimilar to Durdle Door in Dorset. The waves were crashing in beneath it and it was a pretty impressive sit. Next up was “Devil’s Kitchen”. This coincided with a walk that was in a book, so we spent an hour doing that. Walk was pretty easy and consisted of a hilly pathway that was littered with viewing platforms looking down and along the ragged cliffs of the coastline. It ended up in Waterfall Bay, which unfortunately, didn't have any waterfalls to admire. It did look like there may have been one once upon a time though. We walked back to the car and never actually found out what the “Devil’s kitchen” was. Finally, we stopped off at “the blowhole”. Just beyond the car park and café was a large hole on the ground filled with the crashing waves of the ocean. There was no river or steam and the water simply came from underneath the surrounding rock. As impressive as the blowhole was the odour it seemed to be emitting wasn't pleasant but that may have been from the nearby toilets. There was a short walk next to us which went up to the top of some cliffs. The noise the waves were making against the cliffs was incredible and sounded like thunder rumbling away. Charlotte was fairly convinced she heard and saw a seal at one point but there was no definitive siting of one after the initial alarm. With the key local sights done and dusted, we headed back to the hotel for a quick browse on the internet before dinner. We didn't make it as far as the room though. Instead, we walked across to the beach, which was only the other side of the road and followed a path down to a place called the Tessellated Pavement. This had also been on our map and we had initially planned to do it the following day but with some daylight still left, we decided to get it over and done with. We hadn't realised it was so close to our hotel but maybe we should have guessed when noticing that the café attached was called “the pavement”. The Tessellated Pavement is a rock formation that was made by saltwater wearing away the centre of the stones into pools. From above it looks like somebody has been playing naughts and crosses in the rock but forgotten to fill in any if the squares. We were surprised when we saw people down on it walking around. We went down for our own look around but it's much better viewed from above. After our evening stroll on the rocks we headed back to our room and relaxed through to dinner. We went down bang on time and were slightly annoyed to see the restaurant not much more than half full. We did think everyone may have come through earlier though as there were a lot of tables being cleaned. We'd studies the menu extensively in the room and didn't take long to pick out the Bangers and Mash and Lamb Shank. The Bangers said they would be wallaby, wagyu beef and venison. When it arrived there were only 2 sausages on the plate, so they were either a mixture of the 3 or it meant you get any combination of 2. It was really nice though and as my mum had put some money in my bank account for an Easter treat, we decided to put it towards our dinners. We headed up to bed, managing to get just enough internet to book some accommodation in St.Helens for a few days time.

Saturday

We were headed further south today to the former penal colony of Port Arthur. We had wanted to et of early but couldn't resist pressing the snooze button on the alarm a couple of times. We weren't up really late though as we had to be checked out by 10. We left ourselves with enough time to head down and get ourselves some breakfast. We had initially been after a fry up but when we saw a “continental breakfast” buffet that included baked beans, croissants, yoghurts, toast, muffins, juices, tea, coffee, cereal and fruit for $10, we'd thought we'd be mad to miss out. It's safe to say that by the end we had definitely eaten our fill and we struggled back up the stairs to clear out. We settled the bill and headed off for Port Arthur. We thought that by the time we arrived it would be packed and the queue would be horrendous but it was fairly empty, we found a parking spot near the entrance and were only behind 2 people at the main desk. The entry fee came with a complimentary 40 minute walking tour and a 20 minute cruise. With the walking tour coming up first, we had 30 minutes before it sent off and had been given a playing card each when buying our tickets. The playing card corresponded to a real inmate who had spent time at Port Arthur and an exhibit had been set up so we could follow their progress through “the system”. Unfortunately, we can't remember names and upon entering the final room we couldn't find our cons so it was all a bit of a struggle. It had still killed the time before the walk and when we got to the courtyard we were pretty much ready to go. The group spilt in 2, each with a different guide. We didn't go into any buildings on the walk, it was simply a brief overview of the history and which buildings were which in the settlement. It was still good though as it gave us a good start to explore the area. By the time the walk finished it was pretty much time for our harbour cruise. There was plenty of space on the large boat and with Charlotte bunged up to the eyeballs with cold we found a window seat inside. The cruise was more specific than the walk had been, covering things such as escape attempts, weather conditions, the isle of the dead cemetery where inmates as well as workers were buried in unmarked graves (that just applies to the inmates) and Point Puer, where the first juvenile prisons in the British Empire was established. The cruise was over in no time. There had been options to do tours of Point Puer and the isle of the dead but they would have made admission much more expensive, so we stuck with just the basics. When we were back on land we wandered around a number of the old buildings that had made up part of the penal colony. The most extensive building was the Commandants House. Over the years the colony had had 10 Commandants and the house had gained various extensions along the way. By the end, it was made up of 18 rooms, some of which were huge like the living room and some tiny like the bar. The large living room had been situated in such a position that it gave a nice view of the bay but didn't remind the occupants of the drawbacks of living in a remote prison. We did the rounds and then headed out to explore some more. We browsed the police station, guard tower, hospital and Smith O’briens cottage, who's tenant had been a famous Irish political prisoner that had been sent to Port Arthur. During the walk we had been told that there were a number of short plays taking place over the Easter weekend so we decided to take in one of them as it was just starting to rain. When we got to the penitentiary, where it was being put on, we found we still had half an hour until it started. It had long gone 1 and we were starving, so we decided to head back out to the car in order to get ourselves some lunch to pass the time. We made ourselves some sandwiches and had some crisps and fruit left over from walks. We were slightly longer than we had planned but there was a series of plays back to back from 13:30, so we figured we'd make the 2nd one. We made it back in with a short amount of time to spare and found ourselves a seat near the front of the room. The plays were all different. Ours was about an inmate who had been sent to Port Arthur and had wound up making shoes during his time there. He attempted an escape through the forest but got stuck by a bay when the weather took a turn for the worse. From the play we learned that Eaglehawk Neck (where we had stayed the night before) was used as a key strategic position of Port Arthur. Due to its position on a narrow piece of land, the British tied up 8 guard dogs that had chains just long enough to reach their food bowls but not to be able to start fights with the other dogs. These 8 dogs covered the entire width of Eaglehawk Neck. This meant that Port Arthur could only be escaped from by the sea. During our cruise earlier in the day, the guide had said that they reckoned only 2 prisoners had escaped during the years of operation. One of these tied in with the play we had seen in Strahan back at the beginning of our trip. They had escaped with a boat and ended up in South America. 4 had been recaptured but 1 was never heard from again. Anyway, back to the play, the prisoner gave himself up and had his sentence extended for trying to escape. Eventually, while a master cobbler from Hobart was at visiting the colony, the prisoner mustered up the courage to ask him for a job. The cobbler was reluctant but when the prisoner told him that a guard was giving him grief just for the sake of it, he took him to work for him. So it had a happy ending, it was well acted by just 2 people and was quite funny. We headed off to have a look around some remaining buildings we hadn't visited before lunch. We saw the separate prison, which was a late addition to the colony. Inside there was a number of cells that had large heavy doors with a small hole in them for the guards to see them and a small window high up out of reach. There were also pitch black solitary confinement cells that the prisoners could receive varying terms in. Finally, there was the chapel inside the prison. The prisoners would be marched in blindfolded, so they wouldn't be able to see each other and the pews were set up so they would only be able to see the vicar from them. After our visit to the prison we started to head to the exit via the long way walking past the soldiers memorial avenue, which was planted well after the colony closed down, the visiting magistrates house and the church that was in a fairly dilapidation state after catching fire a couple times. On the way out we picked up a pin badge and a coffee from the shop and then headed to the car. We'd set ourselves the time of 4 o'clock to leave as we still had a 2 hour trip north to Swansea. The road was quite windy but we made good time on our trip and arrived at our hostel about 19:00. For the first time on Tasmania, we were back in a dorm, so it was a little bit of a shock to the system. As the receptionist took us to our room we were introduced to one of our American roomies. After making our beds we went back to the common area in an attempt to get some blogging done. We were prevented by the Americans who came up to talk to us. They were an elderly couple from Arizona who I'm sure meant well but came across as rather overbearing. We braved the showers located out in the back garden after dinner and had made it without being inundated by too many flies. We did have a few juicy mosquito bites starting to crop up on us though.

James and Charlotte