A full day of exploring.

We crammed in a lot today, after leaving Hobart at 8.30am to pick up a new campervan from the airport, we travelled 70 miles south down to the historic Port Arthur.

On the way down we stopped to take in the views of Pirates Bay in Eaglehawk Neck, the final causeway leading to our destination.

Due to the popularity of the viewing spot there was a well placed picture frame to capture instagram moments – naturally we duly obliged and joined the queue for our picture to be taken.

We then took the short drive and beach walk to marvel at the Tessellated Pavements formed in the rock from the battering of the sea waves. It’s so odd, as they do really look like they’ve been man-made and chiselled out to look like individual blocks.

Another few miles down the road took us to the Tasman Arch created over hundreds of years of sea erosion resulting in the collapse of an underground cave creating an inland ‘hole’ and a remaining arch way in the rock. It’s the scale of the arch that takes your breath away.

From there we walked a further half a mile to Devils Kitchen another sculptured rock form borne out of hundreds of years of battering from the sea. The drop from the cliff to the water is over 150ft and further highlights the force and scale of the sea as it changes the shape of the coastline. What surprised us both was that these two major attractions were quiet with the signage modest and low key.

We eventually made it to Port Arthur just after lunch and were taken aback by the scale of the historically preserved former convict settlement. It’s a major attraction and entrance required a payment of 90 dollars for the two of us.

Once we entered from the main building we understood why as the area to be discovered is significant with many of the original buildings from the 1850’s convict settlement time still standing.

As part of the entry fee we got a ferry trip around the bay which provided great views of the former convict site as well as a series of islands and other sites where the prisoners worked cutting down trees and the resulting carpentry and iron monger’s buildings that enabled them to build ships for the first 25yrs of the settlements existence. Despite the work force being imprisoned, the quality of their work was by all account of a very high standard!

The main buildings became redundant after the settlement closed in the 1870’s when the Uk stopped sending convicts to Australia.

Sadly a lot of the original buildings were lost in part or altogether as a result of bush fires in 1897.

At first sight it looked like a series of buildings on the horizon but in fact was the impact of the ocean over hundreds of years.

Beautiful views from Basket Bay looking out to the Tasman Sea.

Sadly you see more flat on the side of the road than in the wild.

Such a beautiful and unspoilt place but with such a barbaric history and beginnings, truly Port Arthur is a place of contradiction now offering a quiet place to reflect on the hardships that went before when it was first established.

Tomorrow we head back up the coast to Hobart to visit Salamanca market before heading up the East coast to stay in a small port town called Swansea.