David and Enid's Travels

The Penitentiary, Port Arthur

Today we toured the ruins at Port Arthur, one of the original convict prisons for transported prisoners in (then) Van Diemen’s Land.  It was interesting, though somewhat depressing, to see how badly treated the prisoners were, though the authorities thought that what they were doing was humane.  This was especially true in the “Separate Prison” which was solitary confinement in almost total sensory deprivation.  Prisoners were locked up in the dark for 23 hours a day, and were referred to only by number.  Contact with other prisoners was almost totally eliminated by taking great pains to eliminate noise transferred through the walls and the plumbing.  Small wonder that by the end of Port Arthur’s life as a prison it had become only an asylum for insane prisoners.  Some of the buildings are restored as museums, but many of the larger ones, including the penitentiary, are just the remnant shell of the stone buildings.

We walked around the site until just before noon when we went on a short cruise of the harbour on a boat (included in the price of the admission).  Then we went back to our motorhome and ate lunch.  At that point we put on sunscreen, and it’s a good thing we did.  Although it was cloudy all day, tonight my face feels rather hot and burned.  Even though it was hazy the sun is very powerful.

The biggest problem we had today was trying to recharge our phone.  I’m extremely annoyed at Telstra.  Their help desk service is appalling and next to useless.  For some reason their website would not accept my credit card.  They provided a number to call, but that was equally pointless, as it never led to any human contact, just voice recordings that prompted you to enter your card number, which was promptly rejected.  Eventually, after almost half an hour on hold, I was able to get to a person, and they told me that Telstra has upgraded their system and they did not have credit card access today.  Of course there was no indication of when it will work again.  Which effectively means our phone is useless until we can get to a Telstra store and recharge it.  On the other hand their mobile Internet service is excellent, and has never caused any problems.  But their cell phone service and support are ridiculously poor.

Tessellated pavement

The last two days have been quite cloudy, raining, and cool.  Yesterday (Wednesday, Feb 16) we didn’t leave Coles Bay, nor our motorhome much either.  In the morning we did laundry.  In the afternoon we both read.  We walked down to the beach from the caravan park after supper, but didn’t stay long as it wasn’t very nice out.

Today (Thursday, Feb 17) it was initially quite nice as we drove to Seaforth. It got cloudier though, and starated to rain by the time we got to Sorell, where we bought groceries, fuel, and ate our lunch.

The most interesting site today was probably the broken rock known as the ‘Tessellated Pavement’.  Large flat slabs of siltstone have eroded along the fault lines in the rock, and it looks very much like someone had laid down paving stones.  Next we stopped at the cliffs south of Pirate Bay.  These are the highest sea cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere.  There is a very large arch and a deep chasm called “The Devils’ Kitchen” where the waves crash into the rocks.  As well there is a blowhole, though it was low tide when we were there so not much water was entering.  It would probably be a lot more impressive at high tide.

We drove the 12 km of rough road into Tasman Park and Fortescue Campground.  To my surprise the campground was nearly full.  We drove around and found a good site, and went back to book it.  The office was closed, but there was a list of reserved sites, and this one, site 49, was vacant today though it is booked tomorrow.  We self-registered for the site, drove back and set up.  Not too long after that, just as we got back from walking down to the jetty, a campervan arrived at the site, and the attendant (who must now have been back) had booked our site out to them.  We explained that we had self-registered, and they accepted that, and went back to the registration area.  Tonight we went for a walk along the beach, and saw that they are in a different site (though one not nearly as nice as where we are).  We stopped back at the registration area on the return from our walk, and the reservation sign now says “full”.  We feel lucky that we got here when we did.

We had a long and interesting chat with our neighbours.  They are from Perth, almost identical in age to us, and will be travelling around Australia for over a year.  They are in an outback camper tent trailer and have a four wheel drive.  We talked to the wife for quite a while, and pointed out to her some of the nice camp sites we’ve been in here in Tasmania.

Wineglass Bay

This part of Tasmania was first explored by the French seaman Nicolas Baudan and many of the names here are of French origin.  Towns like Bicheno, parks like Freycinet, are just some of the sites we saw today.  Bicheno is a very nice and pretty town.  We didn’t stay there long, but we did get a refilled lpg tank there.

We got to Freycinet National Park before 10 am, and after making our lunch we hiked up to the viewpoint for Wineglass Bay.  The trail was busy with many tourists on the hike and at the bay, the most we’ve seen anywhere in Tasmania.  Wineglass Bay has been rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  However, I think that’s rather overrated as while it’s a very lovely beach, it’s really not any better (and not nearly as big) as many of the others we’ve seen.  It does have very pretty coloured turquoise water that contrasts with the white sand, the darker blue water of the deep bay and the dark green of the surrounding hills.  We swam in it before eating our lunch, and the water was pretty cool.  This was especially true as there was a very strong on-shore wind driving quite large waves onto the beach.  We floated in the waves for a while before eating our lunch where we sat low down behind some sheltering rocks.  The wind is so strong that it drove stinging sand into our legs.  I commented to Enid that it was a lot like walking in a snowstorm.

After lunch we walked across the isthmus trail to Hazards beach.  This beach was much nicer since it was on the leeward side, so there was much less wind.  We swam here too (as did a few other hardy souls who joined us after we went in).  The water was very clear, so it was nice swimming, though still cool.  After that we changed on the beach and hiked back to our motorhome.  It was about another eight km, and one of the roughest hikes we’ve been on in Australia.  The trail is in good condition with many excellent stone steps in places, but it does go up and down quite a lot and so we were tired by the time we’d completed a little over 12 km today, along with two ocean swims.

Tasmanian farm

We intended to drive to Bicheno and stay in a caravan park tonight.  However after we’d filled up with water, dumped our waste, bought some buns, oranges and milk, and as we drove by more beautiful ocean and Tasmanian farmland, we changed our minds and stopped at another free conservation area campsite.  It was only 10 am when we arrived here, and the campground was pretty full.  However we found a spot that looked ok, so pulled in.

Lagoons Beach

We walked for about 8 kilometres on the beach.  The beach is very, very long, stretching for many kilometers from point to point, and very deserted.  It was easy walking on the hard packed sand.  Since it’s Valentine’s day I scratched a heart with my foot, and put our initials in it.  It was pretty close to the surf though, so Enid and I joked that it wouldn’t last quite as long as our mariage.  It didn’t, as it was gone by the time we walked back.

When we did get back to the campground several of the campers had left.  Since there was now more room we moved to a different spot that was farther away from the others that are here.  More campers have now arrived though, including an older couple that pulled in right next to us.  They are driving a big bus and pulling a small vehicle on a trailer behind.  We haven’t seen many of those in our travels here.  It must be difficult to drive it on these small narrow and twisting roads.

We went to the beach to go swimming in the ocean, but it was just too miserable.  The wind was whipping the sand and the surf was getting big.  Instead we went swimming in the lagoon, which is really the mouth of a small creek.  There is a fairly large pond of water that was quite salty, and also quite warm, so we swam in it for a while.  Enid saw some fish, but I didn’t.

At supper tonight I started the gas stove in the motorhome, and it almost immediately died.  I noticed that the refridgerator was also off, so went and checked the gas valve on the propane tank.  It was open.  I guess we have run out of lpg in that tank, so I switched to the other, and things are working fine now.

Sunset at Swimcart Beach

This morning I walked back to the same point as we went to yesterday, except this time I carried the video camera with me.  Enid only walked partway, found herself a nice spot in the rocks, and read.

I’d thought we might try swimming this afternoon, but we decided not to as the surf is too abrupt.  The waves broke in just the last few feet away from shore.  Instead of swimming I put together all my January pictures into a video slideshow.  Enid read for much of the afternoon, as well as visited with another couple that camp here every year.  They were surprised that the park is so busy, as they say it usually is not.

Tonight there was a nice sunset.  Sunsets here don’t last long, so by the time I walked to the beach to photograph it, the best part of it was gone.

Rocks in the Bay of Fires Conservation Area

We left this morning and drove the very winding and hilly road to St. Helens, which we reached just about 11.  There was about 20 km of gravel road before we got to Gladstone (which is a very small town, though it did have a service station, with the most expensive diesel I’ve seen on this trip).  Enid saw a tiger quoll though all I saw was it’s tail running off the road where it must have been eating a road killed wallaby, and then later we saw another one itself the victim of road kill.  We also saw two wedge tailed eagles, also feasting on the road.  There is an amazing number of dead animals on the highways.

We drove through the Myrtle Forest at Weldborough Pass.  There are some beautiful large trees here, as well as many large ferns.  At St. Helens we were going to stop at the information centre on the way into the town to check where we could get water; however, there was a market on at the centre, and so we saw no where to park.  Instead we stopped at the IGA to get groceries, and then went back to the information centre later on, where we did finally get a parking spot.  We got the information we needed (and filled up with water on the way out of town) and we did a bit of shopping at the market as well.  We bought a few vegetables, including some parsnips which we had for supper tonight, and some more books to read.

The paved road to this campsite was about 12 km from St. Helens.  There are a number of free campsites along the Binalong Bay road in the “Bay of Fires” conservation area.  We don’t have as nice a site as last night, since we can’t see the ocean — all the beachfront sites, and there are quite a large number of them at this site, are taken on this long weekend.  However it’s not a very long walk to the ocean, maybe 100 metres.  We walked along the beach this afternoon, a very hard walk as the sand is soft, white, and granular.  The beach slopes quite quickly into the ocean, so the surf break is very short and fast.  There are many rocky points of weathered granite, and they are highly coloured with orange-red lichen.  These coloured rocks give the bay its name.

Seaweed while snorkelling at Waterhouse Point

It rained a bit in the night, not much, but enough that the sand was damp and because of that stuck to our shoes everytime we went out. It made a mess in our motorhome which we had to sweep out several times during the day.

We went for a long walk on the beach this morning, a little over 5 km. It was cloudy, but warm. There is a lot of seaweed debris in places piled as much as two feet deep; however, in most places the sand is clear and firm and easy to walk on. We walked from one rocky point to another. There are a few cabins along the shore, as well as several places where people are camped. We saw a couple of people fishing.

After lunch I went snorkelling out at the point. Enid swam with me, but didn’t snorkel. There are some rocks at the point and they are covered with a variety of kinds of seaweed. We saw some small little fish, but nothing big. It was fairly hard to see as there is quite a bit of sand in the water so it was a bit murky. It was low tide when we went so there was a very long beach to walk over, at least 100 metres to the water. Now just two hours later the tide is coming in and the rocks where we snorkelled are under water.

It has been a nice day with a nice temperature. It’s still a bit cloudy, but not heavy cloud and the sun is starting to break through.

Sideling Viewpoint

We are camped tonight almost on the beach.  The ocean is about 30 metres away, and we are looking out over it towards the north east.  We are almost on the point of land and looking out into the large expanse of Ringarooma Bay.  The ocean is fairly calm, but there are a few waves as the wind is from the east.  If the sun comes out tomorrow, for today has been cloudy and occasionally has spit rain, it looks like a nice beach to swim and possibly snorkel.  This is one of the nicer campsites we’ve had, and it’s totally free, though quite isolated as we had to drive about 12 km of rough dirt road to get here.

This morning we stopped at a caravan dealers hoping to get the part we need to fix our waste water disposal, but he didn’t have one.  However we did fill up our tanks with water from his faucet, and he talked to us for quite a while.  Water’s not so scarce in Tasmania as it has been other places.  Considering that some of the caravan parks we’ve paid to stay at won’t even let you fill up your storage tanks with water, it’s in such short supply, it was very nice of him.  We went into the city of Launceston, the second largest city in Tasmania with a population of just over 100 thousand, to see the Launceston gorge which is raved over in the tourist information books.  Unfortunately, while it’s nice, it’s not really worth raving over.  It’s a very tiny trickle of water through a very deep canyon.  Since the river is dammed for hydroelectricity there are probably times when the water is high enough to make the rapids big.  This wasn’t one of those times.  They have a long chairlift over the gorge, advertised as the longest span chairlift in the world.  At $15 per person Enid and I passed on the trip (can you imagine getting Enid on a chairlift in any case!) and simply walked across the suspension bridge which took us all of 15 minutes.  We then hiked up to a high point above the gorge, and continued on down along the river to where we ate our lunch.

This afternoon we drove across the Tasman Higway (A3) to Scottsdale.  It is a narrow twisting road.  The country reminds us very much of Tasmania, with small fields and farms, and lots of steep hills.  There was a great quantity of road kill, wallabies and the occasional wombat, on the road.  I’m sure it averaged one animal every kilometre.   The road climbs up over the 600 metre high Sideling Range, then drops again.  Just as it starts to drop there is a viewpoint that looks out over the valley below.  We continued on north off the main highway to the small town of Bridport, then a further 35 km or so reaching the road to the town of Tomahawk, where we realized we had gone too far.  We had to drive back 11 km to where the small dirt road leads into the Waterhouse conservation area.  We know why we missed the road – there was no sign on the road in the direction we were travelling, and nothing to indicate that this was anymore than a road into a farmer’s yard.  There was a sign on the way back, but of course we never saw that! 

In any case it was well worth the drive in as the site though small is very nice.  Several more motorhomes have entered since we arrived, but they would not find many places to stay, as we took the next to last site here.

Forester kangaroo and joey

We hiked to Archers Knob, a hill of about 120 metres height just back from the beach.  We did so by going around the southern side of a small lake (a “lagoon”) where we saw a number of birds including black swans, ducks, a grey faced heron and others.  We also saw a few Forester Kangaroos with joeys.  One had a large joey in her pouch as well as one at foot.  There are good views along the ocean back to Port Sorell as well as of Bakers beach, a long beach several kilometres in length, on which we could see four people walking from the top of the hill.

On the way back we stopped at the bird hide.  However, there were no birds on the lake on the side with the hide, and so we got much better views of them from the open grass on the other side when we walked in.  We did hear several small animals (or large birds) in the bush, but didn’t see any of them.

We ate lunch after we got back to our motorhome at the information centre.  Afterward we drove in to Griffiths Point (where we walked to yesterday) and when we stopped saw a pademelon.  They look much like a wallaby, but are a bit smaller and have a skinny tail.  It disappeared so quickly into the bush that we got only a glimpse, and didn’t get any picture of it.

This afternoon we went for a swim.  The water isn’t very warm, but it was warm enough not to be uncomfortable.  Since it wasn’t very sunny today, mostly hazy with the sun occasionally breaking through we didn’t stay in the water too long, but did wash our hair.

Beach at Narawntapu National Park

The sun is just setting at 8:20 tonight in this national park not far from Devonport where we landed on the ferry last night.  We didn’t do a lot today.  We bought groceries this morning, quite a lot of them as we had tried to empty our refridgerator before crossing to Tasmania.  Then we drove to this park which is on a large bay across from the small town of Port Sorell.  The bay is calm and they use it for water skiing.  Signs on the beach indicate where the ski area is and that you can only water ski between 8 am and 8 pm, and in a counter-clockwise direction.  Since there was no one here skiing today that seems over-regulation, but there must be times when it is much more busy.

The temperature is cool, just over 18 °C today, and with a fairly strong breeze.  It is certainly much different than the high temperatures which we experienced just two weeks ago in South Australia.  We were going to go swimming but decided against it as it seemed a bit chilly in the wind.