Australia Part 1

A 4 hour flight across the Tasman Sea and I was in Sydney. Had a great couple of days with my mum's cousin and his partner. Also caught up with his eldest daughter and her family. 34 years since I last saw these lovely people. Took a few neighbourhood walks including down to Coogee:

No-one swimming in the sea due to multiple shark attacks. But plenty of sea pools to enjoy.

From there I took a short flight down to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. A busy town, heavily reliant on tourism. The hostel was busy with folk from various countries who were working in local businesses.

On the street saw this young lady (that's her with the headphones lying on the pavement!) busy decorating a junction box of some kind:

Had one full day here and made the walk up Mount Wellington for views over the city. I made better time than Charles Darwin did, though his guide wasn't as good as the app I had nor did he have the lovely paved paths and steps that I benefitted from. He called it a 'mountain of little picturesque beauty', but made a lot of insightful observations about its interesting geology.

On my visit it was quite cloudy. Made for some atmospheric shots:

Thankfully at the top the cloud parted to allow views down to Hobart:

The next day I hired a car and headed down to the Tasman Peninsula (number 1 on the map below):

Tasmania was the infamous Van Diemen's Land (U2 song and others) and the narrow Eaglehawk Neck connecting the Tasman Peninsula to the rest of the island was perfect for containing transported convicts who tried to escape from the Port Arthur Penal Colony. 

View of Pirates Bay, just by the Neck. Here I walked down to the amazing Tessellated Pavement:

Due to the work of salt crystals on the siltstone in some cases there are ridges whilst in others there are grooves along the stress cracks.

My first choice National Parks campsite was full so I opted for the Port Arthur Holiday Park with some reluctance. However it was brilliant. A fully equipped camp kitchen with gas stoves and a lounge. There were gas barbecues outside and even a wood fired pizza oven. Busy with lots of Aussie holiday makers but very quiet at night. It was a 5 minute walk to the beach:

And I spotted some familiar 'faces':

Known here as Pied Oystercatchers.

As dusk fell the locals came out:

A type of wallaby which roamed the campsite at night. Thankfully not as daring as the weka on the Abel Tasman track. Unfortunately a lot end up as roadkill. Later in the week I would see a spiny anteater crossing the road but didn't manage to get a picture. Nor did I see any devils:

The next day I set off early for the 5 hour round trip walk to Cape Raoul. I was the first at the car park but it was pretty busy by the time I got back. Another amazingly well kept track:

Cruise ship passing

Cape Raoul

Coastline

The rock here is dolomite that has cooled and been cracked into regular shapes like the basalt columns of Fingal's Cave.

Cape Raoul

It impressed one of the prisoners heading to Port Arthur. '... we hurried forth to the extremity of the world. The scenery of this coast is extremely striking. We passed under two headlands: Cape Raoul and Cape Pillar, which are rendered remarkable not only by their bold and lofty appearance but also by their columnar formation which is as regular as if it were constructed by the hand of art.' This was Irish political prisoner William Smith O'Brian.

Cape Raoul

Shipstern Lookout and bench

The following day I made a shorter walk to Remarkable Cave, Mount Brown and Crescent Bay:

View after climbing down into the collapsed sea cave

No-one else on the beach for my picnic and paddle.

On the way back to the campsite I stopped at the Port Arthur Penal Colony which had quickly become a tourist attraction after it closed in 1877 following 40 years of operation. 2 major bushfires later destroyed a lot of the buildings. Some have been reconstructed and others merely held aloft. Some became hotels and some private houses. Today the whole site is a museum. 

The three storey building is the original penitentiary, built first as a flour mill. Prisoners were sent here for misdemeanours at other colonies. They worked in forestry, coal mining and shipbuilding. Across the bay was a colony for boys, some of whom were as young as nine. They broke rocks to fill in the creek to create flat ground below the prison.

Inside the Separate prison. Here inmates were kept in total isolation, even the exercise yards were individualised. Seen as forward thinking at the time.

The convicts church

A fascinating and sobering place to visit. Serious attempts were made to reform and train the prisoners. In some cases they did very well in others they found their way back into the system. O'Brian was a lucky man from an educated background who got his own cottage while he was there and was excused hard labour.

After 3 nights on the peninsula it was time to leave and I spent a day driving diagonally across Tasmania to reach the far north west. More on that to come...