Tassie Trip March 2018 : Port Arthur and Tasman Peninsula

Port Arthur & Tasman Peninsular

We left Jan & Nick's place early in the morning and headed north towards Hobart. We stopped off at the Woollies at Sorrell to get some groceries for the next few days snacks and also to fuel up before heading down to the Tasman Peninsula.
 We stopped briefly for morning tea at the bakery at Dunnalley. It was really good too! Dunnalley was one of the places badly affected by bushfires some years back. Most of the town was wiped out and people survived by running down to the beach and sheltering in the water beneath the pier.

The signage directed us off to a very good viewing point over Eaglehawk Bay and then down a winding road to see the Tessellated Pavement. We took a walk right down onto the rocks and beach as well as viewed them from above. They really do look like laid pavement.

On on to Port Arthur. We reached there around lunch time and joined a guided tour of the precinct to get an overview of the history of the place. It's a magnificent site, even though some of the buildings are in ruins, many are well preserved and set up for tourists to view.

Included in our entry free was a cruise around the bay to see the burial island and also the island where the youth convicts were segregated. There was a big cruise ship in the bay, so we were lucky to squeeze onto the tour with so many people milling about from the cruise ship.

Of course we also had to visit the memorial to the thirty five people killed in the Port Arthur Massacre back in the 80s. We can thank John Howard (Aussie PM at the time) for introducing very tight gun controls in this country after this awful event, so this sort of violence doesn't ever happen again. So so sad to see all the names of the victims....some only children.

We spent quite some time wandering around the precinct by ourselves looking at the various houses, cell blocks, church ruins and staff residences. You can easily fill in a day here.

It was getting quite late in the afternoon by the time we tore ourselves away to go to our accommodation at Norfolk Bay Convict cottage at Taranna.
This old building was quite charming and had lovely gardens and a beautiful setting by the boat ramp. The building being so old, didn't lend itself to ensuites inside the rooms, but all three rooms for rent had their own private bathroom down a side corridor. It was furnished in period style and was reasonably comfortable, and the hosts were very helpful and pleasant to deal with.
The very best thing was the magnificent breakfast they served in the communal dining room the next morning. All homemade and home grown produce. We smelled the fresh bread baking in the kitchen as soon as we awoke.