Friday

Friday morning we were allowed to sleep in and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We did our washing and walked down to the beach where a force nine gale was blowing and I had to turn around as I was getting very cold.
Pam came back about 1.30 and we had a quick lunch before heading off to Old Hobart Gaol or the Penitentiary.
There was a guided tour at 2.30 which we made by the skin of our teeth and when we enquirer about hour long the tour was wee were categorically told that it would be an hour and a half. We then asked how many would be on the tour and were told it would be the here of us and two others.
This tuned out to be a highly memorable visit. Our guide, Brian, was brilliant and highly interesting. We visited the old courts, the so.itary confinement cells, the convict church, the gaoler's house and various other smaller rooms. The tour ended cup taking three hours and we enjoyed ever minute of it.
The visit to the gallows are was very somber and rather depressing but it did giveyou a good idea of what had gone on. The remaining one sixth of ten church was really worth seeing.

After our visit we drove back to the Eastern Shore where Pam took us to a waterfront pub for a beer which was great. We had stark for tea back at Pam's house and jaut sat there drinking red wine and putting the world to rights we felt very relaxed indeed.

It strikes me that the convict system was a much wider and larger organisation than I had previously considered. The gaol in Hobart was just as interesting as Port Arthur presented another aspect and made me think that waht we created in transportation was a system of white slavery. This in a Victorian Britain which had already ended the slave trade from Africa to the West Indies.

A relaxing Friday with a good historical input.