February 2    Buckland – Tarrana – Port Arthur

As I crawled out of bed to rain on the tent my legs didn’t feel too bad after yesterdays killer climb.

We packed up as quickly as we could and headed off to reset the tent just an hour later in Tarrana. It was dripping wet and you guessed it, still raining. So we set the tent with fly and left the now self mopped floor to dry for the day as we headed to Port Arthur.

It was as we descended the stairs through the car park that the legs suddendly made themselves known! After sorting our tickets and booking our tour and cruise times we headed through to the amazing site (stairs!)

Wow! So much bigger than I thought. With our tour only 45minutes away we headed to the church for the first of the kids activity stops. (Most places have these great activity books for the kids to fill in…school time ✔).

The walking tour was great and gave us a brief overveiw of the history of Port Arthur. Our guide was witty and very knowledgeable  Zach soaked it all up and Clarissa listened to most of it (thankfully some of the more colourful parts went over her head). With heads full of history and bellies rumbling we headed to the cafe for lunch. Adrian and I both enjoyed a chicken and camenbert pie….mmmm yum. We had an hour before our harbour cruise so decided to check out the penitentiary.

The kids were quite shocked at how little space the convicts had in their cells. After exploring a few other buildings (more stairs and hills) and filling in their books we headed to the dock for our cruise. Again the guide was full of great stories as we saw the Port from a different angle and travelled around some of the outlying islands.

We arrived back in time to see the first of 4 dramatic history plays. The 3 actors were fantastic! The kids were literally on the edge of their seats and Adrian and I were no less engrossed. We decided to make sure we saw all of the plays which meant 20 minute breaks between to see some of the other buildings (so many stairs). The plays were taken from real stories and showed the different perspectives of life in Port Arthur.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day spent exploring the history and buildings of this colony.

Tired and with legs extremely sore now we headed back to camp and thankfully a clean, dry tent.

February 3    Tarrana – Hobart – Richmond

Friday was Tassie Devil day. Clarissa had been waiting to see a devil from the moment we got on the boat. We headed to the Unzoo which is dedicated to researching these unique animals (And had no stairs!). We watched as they eagerly came near us and with much delight Clarissa enjoyed her first sighting.

We were able to watch them being fed twice, hand feed the kangaroos (something we have all done but is still cool. The American and Chinese tourists,however, could not contain their excitment at the sight of the roos) and interect in a bush bird show. Zach had a cockatoo land on his arm and take a coin from him back to the trainer. He later returned the coin in the same manner. Highlight of Zach’s day!

On our way to Hobart we ambled through the country side and stopped at a few places to sample chocolates and other delicacies.  We decided to set up camp before heading to Richmond. We arrived at the Hobart Showgrounds and checked in. After 1 hit of the mallet it was clear that this would be Adrian’s first chance to give Big Bertha a drive (Despite what his shirt says, it worked extremely well!)

Through the wind and extremely hard ground we got set and were ready for ice cream. The Coal Valley creamery in Richmond was amazing! I had the most lovely peach ice cream…definitely worth waiting for. We wandered around through the shops and then ventured into Old Hobart Town Model Village.

The village was so cute! All the scenes were set up so well with accuracy and a bit of humour. We all enjoyed the experience and after being at Port Arthur the day before had a better understanding of the time it was representing.

A quick stop by the Richmond Bridge (The oldest standing bridge in Australia) so that Blu could get his own history lesson (More stairs were involved 😦 ) and we headed back to camp to see if the tent had been blown away, thankfully it was fine.

February 4     Salamanca Markets!!

Saturday means market day! I had been hanging out to visit the Salamanca markets as Adrian has been multiple times and told me how great they were. They were huge! With a cruise ship in port the streets were so full I had to hold on to the kids and we moved slowly through the growing crowd to enjoy the wares on offer.

We sampled some yummies and saw some lovelies. We ate doughnuts and fairy floss and chips and hot dogs and on the recommendation of a most beloved Father tried dutch oliebollen (super yum). A great day was had by all and we came away with a few treats too.

We returned for a relaxing arvo which saw Adrian  sleep for 2 hours, the kids play with their newly purchased trinkets  and I got the SA patch finished for our quilt. It depicts the beautiful cost line off Whalers Way which we loved!

 

Our legs were weary but were on their way to recovery. 😉

Michelle xo