Monday and Port Arthur

It was agreed that we would borrow Rennie's car to make the trip to Port Arthur.We had to be up at 6.45 so that we could pick Guilia and John up at 8.30 outside Hobart Town Hall. this was the first time I had driven this car and after a few teething problems soon got the hang of it. We set off and arrived at Port Arthur about an hour and a half later. The setting of this penal colony is wonderful ad it looks like paradise but unfortunately the beauty hides a very sinister history. The only convicts sent here were the ones who misbehaved in Hobart and there was really no escape.

We had a boat trip which was great although the winds coming from Antarctica were very cold. I was more than glad to get off the boat. After our maritime adventure we had a look around the exhibition and found the convict I had been allotted on entry. It turned out he was there because he refused to take orders which Rosemarie found highly comical. We then went on a guided walk with a chap who had the most unfortunate way of talking, he put pauses in sentences where they should not have been and had inflections at the end of each sentence.

After the walk we went off to have lunch before we all went our separate ways. Rosemarie and I visited the ruined church, the solitary confinement unit the commandants' cottage.

On the way home we visited Remarkable Cove where the coastline is very like that of Cornwall, nothing beyond but a 10 day trip to Antarctica. We drove back via Pirate's bay which was wonderful and arrived back in Hobart at 5.30.

We headed straight off to a barbecue which was great until the sun went down when the temperature went down rapidly. Ans and her partner Peter took us home and we had an early night, tired but also very thoughtful about what we had seen.