Australia is a big place and we wanted to to see at least some of it. Many yachties buy a car/van and tour the great continent for a year or more. Alas, between refit expenses and soaring fuel prices we just couldn't do that. So, where to go? Most of Oz is arid and desolate. Being from Texas, we had a pretty good idea what that looked like. Since we'd heard that Tasmania ("Tassie" in Aussie slang) was similar to New Zealand and we're big fans of NZ, we decided to visit it as our token Oz trip.

  We rode the train from Bundaberg to Brisbane, then flew to Hobart to pick up a camper van.

  Here's a shot of the plane; the admiral is a fan of "nose art". If you look closely, you will see the pilot glaring out of the cockpit. Why? Because they had just advised the passengers not to take pictures when they got off the plane. But for the admiral, art comes first. We were naturally busted by the authorities, who gave us a thorough finger-wagging.

  Tasmania is filled with wildlife, much of which is plastered all over the roads. The rest is of the metallic variety. Above we see a wombat crossing.

This is a Tasmanian Devil crossing. Unfortunately, almost all these creatures have been wiped out by a strange facial cancer that is transmitted by biting.

  An echidna crossing. We don't think they bite much besides bugs.

No, poor Capt Hub was not jailed (goaled?) for his wife's crime of shooting the plane, he's just a tourist at the notorious Port Arthur prison complex. For those curious about the place we suggest reading The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.

  Here's the main guard tower. It looks kinda cool, but Port Arthur was a tough place, designed for convicts that had re-offended after being transported to Australia. On the other hand, it was designed and run using enlightened ideas spawned by the reform movements of early Victorian England.

OK, some parts were less enlightened than others. Here our poor Capt Hub demonstrates the use of the infamous "triangle". The admiral was most frustrated that she'd left her cat-o-nine-tails back at the boat - she wanted to lend authenticity to the scene.

    The Brits who lived here longed for Mother England, so they planted trees like the willow above to create a nice Englishness to the place. The climate is very similar to the sceptred isle.

In the background is the ruins of the neat old church, which we believe burned down in the fire of the late 1800s, after the prison had been closed. The modern one in the foreground is called St David's.

  Speaking of church, this is the chapel in the "Separate Prison", considered the most enlightened part of the complex. In this prison bloc the inmates were not allowed to speak and were kept in solitary confinement. Each cell contained a loom or spinning wheel, i.e. they spent the day working in their cells, where they also slept and ate. The pews above were actually stalls where the inmates were locked and where they stood for the service; a door separates each stall. Each prisoner was fitted with a mask-like hood. These measures were expected to have a calming influence.

It's hard to encompass the whole complex in one picture. This is a shot taken from a boat in the harbor showing the old wharf area and main dormitory. It's also hard to imagine all the suffering which occurred in an otherwise stunningly beautiful setting.

  This is the Isle of the Dead, where both inmates and staff are buried, the former in unmarked graves on the low side, the latter in marked spots on the high.

 We'd best move on from Port Arthur. However, Tasmania, aka Van Dieman's Land, had many prison complexes. Here we see a stylish inmate showing one of the cells at the Coal Mines prison, a place much worse than Port Arthur. 

After sleeping over in Lyme Bay, we caravaned to Cradle Mountain National Park Lake St.Clair. It was really cold ,so we pulled out our woolies and got all rugged up to brave the brisk Tassie climate. Here is Platypus Bay - sadly no platypusses. We quietly eased over to the beach at dusk to await some small glimpse of these queer looking creatures. No bueno. The still water stayed motionless to any aquatic evening foraging.

We were anxious to go for a solid hike which was advertised as 14 km and named The Loop. Halfway through our forest adventure we plopped down for lunch and a breather.

 Here we come to a lull in the rain forest. Four hours into our "hike" we were concerned about the dwindling daylight.

We continued to follow the stream towards our new Mecca. The Campground!

Alas, weary and sore we plodded into our quiet unpopulated sanctuary. No other trekkers but there were 'roos! They're cute but not very friendly.

  Speaking of 'roos, this is a pademelon wallaby, a sort of rat-like version of a kangaroo. Here we see it eating its natural prey, which is an Australian version of a Cheese-It, i.e. they like to infest campgrounds and shake down visitors for a handout. The marsupials of Australia fill niches similar to those found in N America. In this case the US niche would be filled by a squirrel or chipmunk. What was surprising is how much fighting they would do over the crackers, growling and attacking one another. This is not too surprising, since the admiral will growl and attack the Capt whenever they try to share a box of these crackers ( "biscuits" actually, Arnott's Cheddar Shapes), which are quite tasty.

   After our lovely 2 whole days at Lake St Clair we turned back south. This is a view of the Derwent River estuary from Mt Wellington. The city of Hobart can be seen to the left.

  For some reason we like to take pictures of our rental vehicles. The basket-like thing below the windshield is designed to deflect small stones.

  That's our little Tassie trip. It seems most of our views of Oz will be from the water. 

  If you came here from the Australia page, please press here.

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