Staying at the small ‘Astor Private Hotel’ in Hobart has been a hoot with eccentric and entertaining fellow guests and host. After checking out, we drove down the Tasman Peninsula to Port Arthur, a world heritage site and former penal colony. It’s a huge complex of over 30 buildings in various states of repair and extensive gardens. Surrounded by water and connected to ‘mainland’ Tasmania by ‘Eaglehawk Neck’, a narrow strip of land only 30 meters wide, the site was difficult to escape from. A ‘Dog Line’ of fierce dogs guarded the narrow passage to prevent convicts from escaping the colony.
The drive up Tasmania’s east coast to Bicheno takes far longer than we expected. On parts of the drive we are on what is called the ‘Great Eastern Road’. Like it’s counterpart in south Australia, water is hard to spot for long stretches. What we see, however, is beautiful blue water and white sandy beaches framed by mountains. Along the route are a number of small wineries, mostly family owned. And, lots of sheep.
Bicheno is a small beach town along the eastern coast and will be our stop for the next few days. Over a year ago I saw a video on tours of the Bicheno blue penguin colony here, hence our stay. We took an evening tour to watch the penguins return from the water to nest for the evening – one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Here’s the video: ‘https://www.bichenopenguintours.com.au/videos’.
Dick
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Our stay at the Aster was quite the experience. It was well worth the price of admission just to meet Tildy, the owner. To say she is eccentric is putting it mildly, I would definitely say that she has no filter when she speaks and one never knows what will come out of her mouth. Quite entertaining.
We decide to head over to Port Arthur to visit the penal colony there. The original building was built to store grain and mill flour, but was repurposed as a prison in the early 1800’s. Life was extremely difficult for the prisoners and there was little chance of escape. The prison complex was only in use for twenty years, but it was a very large settlement and at its peak it housed more than 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff. Of course, the history of Australia is highly intertwined with the penal system and they don’t try to whitewash it, here the convicts were treated as slaves. Of note, you could be sent here from England if you were convicted of a crime as young as seven years old.
After a somewhat longer drive than expected, we arrive in Bicheno in time to get a load of laundry started and have a nice meal. Tonight, we saw the blue penguin colony, a much anticipated event. Dick has posted a link to the video and I will warn you the jingle might get stuck in your head.
The penguins were wonderful.
Mary