Port Arthur

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Port Arthur
November 11, 2008

I’m sleeping in the bunk over the cab and last night I had to keep beating on the ceiling to keep the opossums off the top of the truck. I think they thought there was going to be free food at this party, sure couldn’t keep them away. Joe nestled snug in his bed below missed the whole thing.

We woke up to the fresh beach air and begging wallabies all around our camper. We fixed some breakfast and headed on south on the east coast of Tasmania. First stop today was the Tessellated Pavement and enjoyed the oyster catchers (birds) there just as much as the patterns in the coastline.

We then finally got our penal education at Port Arthur, the prison for the English convicts that were the worst of the worst. It was certainly in a beautiful location, but have to remember there weren’t all those green lawns and flowers back then. The hefty admission fee did include a harbor cruise and an excellent walking tour with a pleasant guide that could be described as a true “people person.” She held our attention, which is saying a lot since we aren’t big fans of group tours. Port Arthur is the biggest tourist draw in Tasmania, easy to see why. It’s an interesting place and we spent over three hours there.

There is a crazy little village near Port Arthur called Doo Town and all the people have named their houses something containing the word “Doo.” It was a lot of fun to drive around reading the names of the houses. There was “Doo Me, She’ll Doo, Didgeri-Doo, Love Me Doo, Much-a-Doo, XanaDoo,” etc. Looked like the people in that town have a lot of fun together.

Back on the road we stopped at more coastal formations and ran into some serious bird watchers at one. They were from Queensland, names are Pam and Graeme (rhyming names) and they pointed out a new bird and were pleasant company on our walk to and from “Devil’s Kitchen.” They are good friends with the guy that wrote the Australian bird book we are using and have a website for selling their photos of birds. We ended up having dinner with them at a tavern that served some super great seafood chowder. By this time it was starting to get dark and the tavern owner is letting us park the camper in a field next door overnight for free. The camper has it’s own toilet and hot shower so we are fine. We are next to the ocean…a good deal.

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