9th March 2008

---

9th March 2008
We left with Ken and Gemma and the children, at 8am, to catch the boat from Eaglehawk Neck near Port Arthur to do another sea trip. We had booked with the same company that we did on Bruny Island and knew what to expect this time.
We stopped on the way at Sorrell for some breakfast but this made us a bit late getting to Port Arthur, and we arrived just as the coach was disappearing down the road, so we had to drive back to Eagle Neck to catch the boat. The children were really worried the boat would go without us!
Although it was a beautiful sunny day and warm, the wind had got up at sea and this gave us an exciting ride again. Dinah, Bob and Emily sat up the front of the boat which felt as if it was going to take off at times and made Emily and some of the other female passengers scream. We thought we would get really wet at the front but Ken and Gem and Josh got much wetter at the back.
The boat really roared along and the coastline was amazing. The guide, Damien who was a friend of Gem's, was very good and really knew his stuff. Like all the other guides and rangers we have encountered on this trip he was passionate about the countryside, the unique rock formations and the wildlife.
We swept into caves and flew over the waves as we went down the Tasman Peninsular. Again we saw huge blow holes where the cliffs had been eaten away by the sea underneath to make underwater caves which sucked the water in and spat it out in plumes.
Half way down Damien spotted a feeding frenzy of birds out to sea and although he hesitated for a moment, as the swell was rising, decided to go out to have a look. There were albatros, gannets, a stormy petrol (the wolf of the sea as it attacks everything) and little black shearwaters. There were some seals under the waves driving the fish (probably tuna) up to the surface and the birds were diving and soaring all around us. It was awesome!!!
After that we went back to hugging the coast until we got to the tip of the Tasman Peninsular.
We went between the pillar and the open sea at Cape Pillar and then between the Tasman Island and the Southern Ocean. The swell was huge but we were riding with it by now and it was like a giant roller coaster but very gentle. At the tip of the peninsular there was a lighthouse no longer maned but with a fantastic set of pulleys and cradles which were used to get the people and the stores up to the lighthouse.
There were many colonies of brown Australian fur seals basking on the rocks or fighting playfully in the waves. One seal had a massive gouge out of his neck which meant he had had a close encounter with a shark. The seals were all males just hanging about and in one area they were massive. Damien said they were the prime males and only the very largest were allowed on that very desirable spot on the rocks. Again there were hundreds of sea birds wheeling and gliding and making a lot of noise.
We rounded the tip of the peninsular which had huge pillars of rock and headed up the inlet to Port Arthur and the former convict settlement. We could see the prison from the boat as we roared past with Josh and Emily having a turn at steering!
Eventually we drew up at the jetty in Stuart Bay and disembarked after a marvelous trip. We all had very wet feet but were quite dry under our red waterproofs.
After a nice bowl of soup we went back to the cars at Eaglehawk Neck and went to see the Devil's Kitchen and the Blow Hole from the land side this time. We also had a super fruity ice cream.
As we were in the area we went for a stroll on the tessellated pavement which is a very strange phenomenon and really doesn't look natural. The children enjoyed inspecting all the rock pools to find crabs, sea anenomes and blue starfish.
We arrived back at The Robertson's and Gem got us lovely fish and chips from a branch of Mures (the famous fish shop at Hobart Wharf) for our tea. We had trevally and blue grenadier. They were delicious!!!

---

Comments

[Lucy]

Seasick!
I only felt the tiniest bit seasick reading about that boat trip, it sounded very exciting.