5 - 11 March 2018
Tasmanian Motorcycle Tour
Day 3 ~ Wednesday - March 7
Hobart - Port Arthur ~ 220kms
Hobart - Port Arthur ~ 220kms
Breakfast had been organised for 8.00am with everyone pretty much on time. Most of us had a cooked breakfast, although the more ‘diet conscious’ settled for things like muesli and fruit!
It was good to be able to leave the luggage behind and ride the bikes with just the passengers and a little bit of wet weather gear, although again we had woken to a beautiful clear and warm day. On arrival at the bikes we paid for the two full nights parking as we had planned an earlier start for Thursday and didn’t want to wait for the attendant if he was busy elsewhere. Our initial stop was to be for petrol but first to navigate out of Hobart towards Sorell. To get to Port Arthur we again needed to cross the Tasman Bridge. Traffic travelling in was busy, with 3 of the 5 lanes of the bridge getting traffic into Hobart, our 2 lanes only had minimal traffic. Once out of the main part of the city we followed the Tasman Highway across two beautiful land-bridges with great views of the outer suburbs of Hobart, all with awesome water vistas. Our fuel stop was on Midway Point, aptly named as it joined the two land-bridges. From here it was on to Sorell, which was busy, a major timber processing location, so we anticipated logging trucks on the route as we travelled towards Port Arthur.
We had a good run, having fun overtaking the tourist traffic, caravans and camper vans and enjoying the sweeping bends and winding road. After Dunalley, a tourist fishing location, we wound our way through some very dense forest areas, seeing ‘road kill’, dead possums, wallabies, wombats, and Tasmanian devils at regular intervals. Cliff & Ken were hopeful of getting Geoff, Beck, Kim & Guy a look at this native Tasmanian fauna as live specimens at some stage in the next few days.
The decent into Eaglehawk Neck, the only way into and out of Port Arthur by land, showed just how difficult it would have been for the prisoners in Port Arthur to escape, let alone the fact that the military had guard dogs here as well.
It was good to be able to leave the luggage behind and ride the bikes with just the passengers and a little bit of wet weather gear, although again we had woken to a beautiful clear and warm day. On arrival at the bikes we paid for the two full nights parking as we had planned an earlier start for Thursday and didn’t want to wait for the attendant if he was busy elsewhere. Our initial stop was to be for petrol but first to navigate out of Hobart towards Sorell. To get to Port Arthur we again needed to cross the Tasman Bridge. Traffic travelling in was busy, with 3 of the 5 lanes of the bridge getting traffic into Hobart, our 2 lanes only had minimal traffic. Once out of the main part of the city we followed the Tasman Highway across two beautiful land-bridges with great views of the outer suburbs of Hobart, all with awesome water vistas. Our fuel stop was on Midway Point, aptly named as it joined the two land-bridges. From here it was on to Sorell, which was busy, a major timber processing location, so we anticipated logging trucks on the route as we travelled towards Port Arthur.
We had a good run, having fun overtaking the tourist traffic, caravans and camper vans and enjoying the sweeping bends and winding road. After Dunalley, a tourist fishing location, we wound our way through some very dense forest areas, seeing ‘road kill’, dead possums, wallabies, wombats, and Tasmanian devils at regular intervals. Cliff & Ken were hopeful of getting Geoff, Beck, Kim & Guy a look at this native Tasmanian fauna as live specimens at some stage in the next few days.
The decent into Eaglehawk Neck, the only way into and out of Port Arthur by land, showed just how difficult it would have been for the prisoners in Port Arthur to escape, let alone the fact that the military had guard dogs here as well.
Once in Port Arthur we found the parking area for the historic site and found we could hire lockers so we didn’t have to carry helmets, jackets and gloves around the site. Once organised we looked at the time and decided two hours to tour the site and have lunch would be sufficient. It was agreed we would leave around 2.00pm, giving us time to make MONA, a very unusual underground Art Museum back in Hobart.
Everyone is affected differently by a visit to Port Arthur.
We did a 40 minute guided tour and had a brief introduction to the history of Port Arthur. Our guide took us down to view Safety Cove, The Penitentiary, the Guard Tower, the gardens and the Separate Prison. After her talk we wandered through the Commandant’s House, The Penitentiary, past the Police Station and the level area where the original huts for the convicts stood and then over the creek to the Separate Prison. The Separate Prison was a prison of silence and isolation.
After viewing the exercise yard, the single cells and the single alcoves in the church, designed so prisoners could only see the pulpit, we moved back out into the sunshine walking through the gardens, past Civil Officer’s Row, viewed the ruins of the unconsecrated church then headed towards the memorial, dedicated to the memory of those killed in the 1996 massacre. This is a memorial garden built around the shell of the Broad Arrow Café, the place were 20 of the 35 killed lost their lives.
For further information on Port Arthur have a look at this link: https://portarthur.org.au
After viewing the exercise yard, the single cells and the single alcoves in the church, designed so prisoners could only see the pulpit, we moved back out into the sunshine walking through the gardens, past Civil Officer’s Row, viewed the ruins of the unconsecrated church then headed towards the memorial, dedicated to the memory of those killed in the 1996 massacre. This is a memorial garden built around the shell of the Broad Arrow Café, the place were 20 of the 35 killed lost their lives.
For further information on Port Arthur have a look at this link: https://portarthur.org.au
Views around Port Arthur
From here we headed back to the visitor’s centre, checked our entry token ‘playing card’ against the information for the villain or noble person from Port Arthur we had been carrying around with us on our tour. We had something to eat and drink for lunch on the balcony of the visitor’s centre before collecting our gear and heading back to Hobart and MONA. We had left by 2.30pm so we had time to visit if nothing untoward was to happen.
Walking through The Penitentiary
Like all plans sometimes things untoward do happen, but thankfully the ‘untoward’ was not to us. We had left Port Arthur by no more than 5 minutes when the road in front of us was just being blocked, an accident had occurred on the road up ahead so all traffic was being diverted back past Port Arthur round through Nubenna then onto Taranna before getting back on the Arthur Highway to Eaglehawk Neck, Sorell and Hobart. This would add an extra 30 - 40 minutes to the trip which made visiting MONA impossible.
With this knowledge we decided on a little more ‘leisurely’ ride back into Hobart, park the bikes and walk down to Constitution Dock, view the older areas of Hobart and have dinner in a Harbourside establishment.
With this knowledge we decided on a little more ‘leisurely’ ride back into Hobart, park the bikes and walk down to Constitution Dock, view the older areas of Hobart and have dinner in a Harbourside establishment.
With this knowledge we decided on a little more ‘leisurely’ ride back into Hobart, park the bikes and walk down to Constitution Dock, view the older areas of Hobart and have dinner in a Harbourside establishment. But before we could do that we would have the pleasure of watching a number of fully ladened logging trucks demonstrate their abilities on navigating the winding rounds of the area at the fully allowed speed. Pretty spectacular and a little difficult to overtake even on the bikes! We were so ‘exhausted’ from following them we had to have a ‘rest break’ at a service station in Sorell.
Back in Hobart we parked the bikes, took our gear back to the hotel, changed into something more appropriate for walking then headed down to the harbour area and Constitution Dock. Our walk took us past the Douglas Mawson Museum, which houses the hut they stayed in when exploring the Antarctic in 1911.
We explored the old bond stores, the Henry Jones IXL Jam factory (now Art Mob - Aboriginal Fine Art and a number of eateries) as well as a number of warehouses on the pier that now provide motel and unit accommodation. For dinner we finally decided on ‘fish & chips’ at Mures Lower Deck on Franklin Wharf, and we were entertained by an interesting array of customers. They also had great ice creams!
After dinner we continued to wander the streets around the wharf area and near our hotel even taking a walk down Elizabeth Mall and watching a Soup Kitchen being set up for those needing a free feed. Back in the hotel bar we had a few drinks and where just settling in when the bar manager told us they had to close the bar at 9.00pm as they had no patrons in the poker machine room. It was a part of the regulations they had to follow to keep the poker machine licence. He offered to pour a few more beers for us to take to the rooms if we wished. It was a unanimous decision to call it a night. We organised breakfast for 7.30am then leaving for the bikes by 8.00am for our forwarding trip to Queenstown the next day.
Back in Hobart we parked the bikes, took our gear back to the hotel, changed into something more appropriate for walking then headed down to the harbour area and Constitution Dock. Our walk took us past the Douglas Mawson Museum, which houses the hut they stayed in when exploring the Antarctic in 1911.
We explored the old bond stores, the Henry Jones IXL Jam factory (now Art Mob - Aboriginal Fine Art and a number of eateries) as well as a number of warehouses on the pier that now provide motel and unit accommodation. For dinner we finally decided on ‘fish & chips’ at Mures Lower Deck on Franklin Wharf, and we were entertained by an interesting array of customers. They also had great ice creams!
After dinner we continued to wander the streets around the wharf area and near our hotel even taking a walk down Elizabeth Mall and watching a Soup Kitchen being set up for those needing a free feed. Back in the hotel bar we had a few drinks and where just settling in when the bar manager told us they had to close the bar at 9.00pm as they had no patrons in the poker machine room. It was a part of the regulations they had to follow to keep the poker machine licence. He offered to pour a few more beers for us to take to the rooms if we wished. It was a unanimous decision to call it a night. We organised breakfast for 7.30am then leaving for the bikes by 8.00am for our forwarding trip to Queenstown the next day.