November 11, 2002 (Tasman Peninsula, Port Arthur and Hobart)

According to Michael, if you were a geologist, you would have been very excited about the tessellated rocks found at Eaglehawk Neck. Two types of tessellated rocks can be found there, one that resembles the domed arch of a loaf of bread and the other, resembling the depressed middle of flan/custard pie. Anyway, Mark and Paul had the best time there, as Mark is the group's amateur geologist and Paul, well, he is Paul, cool dude up for almost anything. So tessellated rocks, why are they important? Well, it has everything to do with the earth's crust moving about and thrusting rocks to the surface then with natural fault lines breaking the rocks in a north-south and east-west direction. I think that is how Michael explained it. If I am wrong, please forgive me. If you do know why tessellated rocks are cool, please drop me a line. I would like to get it straight and add to my knowledge of trivial pursuit.

Food in the Bush:

While walking the tessellated rocks, Michael showed us a kind of clingy and viny plant growing and taking root in the rocks. I believe he called it sea celery. This is yet another edible plant. First, he had us eat grass and then today he made us eat some weed growing in the rocks. Yes folks, in this tour we were properly fed...hahahahahah

We were also shown the hallucinogenic properties of the leaf Sassafras. Found in the rain forest this green leaf has a bitter, minty taste and quite addicting. I took a liking to Sassafras, I will admit to that. And frankly, I think I did not eat enough Sassafras to make me see things and hear things. So if you please, pass me another Sassafras leaf.

Today's itinerary to see the Tasman Arch and Devil's kitchen was fair. I mean, once you have seen a blowhole, you have seen them all. Though I must admit the Tasman Arch stories and jokes shared by Michael and Sarah gave us good cheer. Well, after Sarah's joke turned out to be a joke without a punchline...we all decided to go ahead and walk the path. The vistas were gorgeous. Each bend gave us a view of magnificent colors and dramatic sheer cliff drops. The place was almost too beautiful. Besides, I found that I have run out of superlatives days ago to describe Tasmania. The tendency to forget about the sheer beauty of the place and ignore it was there. And in fact, at some point I did ignore the views and focused my attention on gathering flowers to adorn my hat. Only B was there to catch what I was doing and sang me the few lines she knew: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair..."

After lunch, we headed off to Port Arthur. On our way there, we drove though what seemed to be a forest fire. Smoke was everywhere and the dried leaves on the ground kept the fire going, trees were burning so Michael jumped out of the bus and started to investigate. He was a forest ranger so we understood his concern. And in true tourist form, we all jumped out of the bus as well and took pictures. What Michael feared as a forest fire turned out to be a controlled burn by a concerned homeowner. From the smoke emerged an elderly man with water buckets. He explained to Michael that he has been burning this piece of hillside since that morning and that he had everything under control. Phew...thank God! This tour is really something else! First, we were treated to a celebrity encounter and now we were given the opportunity to see a controlled forest fire. What a great tour this turned out to be...honest! hahahah

So when everything was settled and a few more pictures were taken, we all piled back in the bus and headed to Port Arthur. And in Port Arthur I found a woman, a docent of the place who does not believe in punctuations. She does not recognize nor try to use a period to end her sentences. With a monotonous, long winded, even drone, she recited to us 20 minutes of Port Arthur history. She claimed to have the gift of gab; I think it is more like a cursed mouth. Frankly, I would have been happier had she handed us a brochure and directed us to follow a path. At least if we decided to read the brochure aloud, we could have read it with punctuations in mind.

Anyway in the Interpretation Gallery below the visitor center, we were given a taste of the convicts "Lottery of Life". Each card given to us represented a convict and his or her story. I found it quite interesting how the justice system all those years ago was responsible in making the hardened criminals. Those convicts were imprisoned for petty crimes. In fact, their crimes were crimes of poverty. For stealing bread, a man was sentenced to seven years. And in each petty offence like trying to escape, the get years added to their sentence. Boys as young as nine were imprisoned in Port Arthur though eventually they were moved to the island across the penitentiary and away from the men. In this island, the boys were treated as children and taught trade skills, and they were the ones who built Australia. These rehabilitated boys built this great country...interesting, aye.

Though I would have wanted to stay in Port Arthur longer to explore the penitentiary grounds alone, I was happy to leave. I am frankly getting depressed by the place. Who wants to be reminded of a gory and unjust past? I was happy to leave and even happier to be driven to the Tazmanian Devil Park. We were just in time to see them fed and the gentle keeper Stephen picked up a baby Devil who obliged us by baring her fangs and nipping at his fingers on cue. How cute! But what really got me in the heart was the baby Wombat. In the arms of the Park's owner, this baby wombat looked stoned. With a blade of grass hanging from its mouth, it would pass in and out of consciousness. He was adorable! Still I believe he was stoned and I would not mind having a taste of that grass that baby wombat was eating. Maybe I can also share in his fun. Hmmmm?

Anyway, we were scheduled to make an overnight stay in Hobart. Oh joy! A big city! Hahaahahha...we all had dinner at an Indian restaurant and said goodbye to Michael because he was not going to continue guiding us for the rest of the tour. During dinner, our bus got broken into and Sarah's backpack stolen. They smashed the window and made a mess of everything. I was quite warmed by the show of concern my tour mates had for my iPod. They all wanted to find out if I had taken my iPod out of the bus. See for the past four days, I have provided the bus, music from the iPod. We had Sarah's skip-full Discman and we were limited to the six CDs she had, but with my iPod and 1660 songs, well, I kept the bus ride bearable with music. I hope the police catch the bastard who stole Sarah's pack. Now he deserves to have a few years at Port Arthur as a guest in the correctional facility.

Trivia:

From Port Arthur, we drove through Penzance and the Bay of Pirates, which made me think of the musical Pirates of Penzance. Now I am wondering if this place inspired the musical.

I am Mary Grace, glad not to be a convict.