A coastal cruise and a convict site

Wednesday, November 3 and today's weather looked promising as the rain stopped and it was clearing. After breakfast in our cottage we headed out for a day of siteseeing. In the morning we had a coastal cruise scheduled. We stopped at a few beautiful spots prior to boarding the boat for the cruise. We travelled 70 km up the coastline from Port Arthur to Eaglehawk Neck. The boat ride was WILD. We have never experienced so much bouncing around. We thought the seas were pretty rough as the boat bounced up and down and we literally flew out of our seats. It was fun, but wild. The seas were rough--we learned later they were only 1.5 meters, or 4-5 ft waves, but they were sure big to us.

A preview of the shoreline we would soon cruise along.

On the boat ready to head up the coastline.  They offered us ginger tablets prior to boarding.  That should have been a hint of what was to come with rough seas.



Seals



Sea cave and we rode right up into it.

To find whales, you follow the birds as they feast on what the whale stirs up.

As we cruised along, we saw a whale, seals, and a variety of birds. The coastline was rugged with cliffs that soared out of the ocean. At times the boat was just a few feet from the cliffs as the captain was showing us hidden caves and arches.

Next we headed to the Port Arthur Historic Convict Site. The penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, using convict labor to produce sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. We toured the site with a guide and learned that Port Arthur was much more than a prison, it was a complete community--home to military personnel and free settlers. And the community of military and free men and their families lived their lives very differently than the convict population. There were beautiful gardens and homes.

Our guide explaining how the convicts were separated and isolated from others as punishment.

Port Arthur Convict Site

Following the tour of the site, we had a couple hours before our dinner reservation and ghost tour that evening. So, we drove back toward our hotel as Terry had noticed a junkyard and thought that would be the perfect place to buy a couple Tasmania vehicle license plates for our son-in-law, who collects plates. So off to the junkyard we went. Terry came out with a couple plates for Ryan! Yeah!!

Success at finding license plates

As darkness fell on Port Arthur, we met up with our Ghost Tour. In a group of about 20 people, our guide led us through several of the buildings on the site and told us stories of strange events going back to the convict days. She did a good job in making us feel creepy as we walked through the rooms. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but it was fun. As we walked to our car we marvelled at the stars in the

Terry was chosen to carry one of the lanterns during the ghost tour.

sky. The sky was clear and the stars were like glitter up there. We couldn't pick out the "Southern Cross" but we saw a gazillon stars and they were awesome.

On the drive home, we narrowly missed hitting two wallabies on the road. That was the scariest part of the evening!