Port Arthur and the long drive
Jan 15th, 2008 by Nick
This morning I had planned to get up very early and beat the traffic out to Port Arthur. I’d been told that the highways would take a long time because they are narrow and winding. But when the alarm went off at 6am, the answer was a resolute no. Eventually I made it up around 8:45 and was on the highway by 10. With a stop in Sorrell for cash and breakfast, I was at Port Arthur just before noon. The drive was beautiful. Being on the wrong side of the road is not bad when it’s two lane highway. The only time it bothers me are on slight uphill curves to the left, where the oncoming traffic is crossing in front of me visually going into the curve.
Port Arthur is a very interesting place. For the most part, it was an open-air prison camp; where else where the inmates going to go? The agency running the historical site today has a good setup, with an introductory walking tour, a harbour cruise, optional tours of the outer islands, and several buildings partially open for access. The walking tour was especially informative for a non-Australian. I also took the walking tour of the cemetery island, but I did not think that was worth the extra A$10. After walking through some of the exhibits and buildings, I left at about 3pm.
The drive to Bicheno had two parts: first I had to head back almost all the way to Hobart, then continue northeast. The second part of the drive was fantastic. It takes you through a variety of scenaries, from hugging the coast line similar to Hwy 1 in California, to crusing through ranges of sheep. The only issue was the limited number of places to stop along the way: plan carefully. It took me four hours to get to Bicheno. I had originally planned on stopping in Swansea for dinner, but there was not much there. Bicheno, by comparison, is a thriving hamlet of 771 people.
I checked into my functional Best Western: it is clean and has no odor of mold/mildew, which is a concern so close to the water. I deliberately went low-end on the hotel here to avoid any kind of ‘posh’ trappings that would just breed mold. But since the driving was so fast, I’m only going to stay here two nights. I will cover Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park (about 25 minutes south of here) tomorrow, then work my way to Launceston on Thursday.
The only bad thing about the day is that I basically have no mobile phone service. This makes me feel very uncomfortable, but I should have realized that a town of 771 is not going to have a GSM tower hovering nearby!
Reading about you driving on the “wrong” side of the road made me laugh, Nick! It reminded me of when Ken and I went to England on our honeymoon–the only time we almost had a wreck is when a lorry was coming towards me and I had to remind myself that I was in the proper lane and not about to be in a head-on collision with said lorry!
Missy (never mind that it says “Ken”)