Thursday, February 6, 2025

Our day began at the Port Arthur Holiday Park in Port Arthur, Tasmania. After a very rough night of sleep, Andi was up at 5:30am for conference calls between 6am-10am. Early conference calls are the trickiest part of traveling as a family in a RV because there isn’t a good place for Andi to work early in the morning. He says it’s too hard for him to stay inside the RV while we’re in here with him, and the alternative is that the kids & I have to find somewhere to go at 6:00am. Andi took one for the team, as usual, and set up a make-shift office outside the camper. It was a chilly 58 degrees this morning.

Tory, Aden, and I slept in a little bit, because oof — we were tired from a terrible night of sleep. For one, it got pretty cold in our RV last night, and each of us only had a thin comforter supplied by the RV rental company. The supplied pillows are flat as pancakes which was the kids’ gripe. For Andi and I, it was the seat cushions turned into a bed mattress that had our backs and hips screaming at us all night long. We’re technically camping, I know, so we should expect such conditions, but our RV bed is so uncomfortable! It’s going to be a long two weeks.

While Andi finished his conference calls outside the RV, I prodded the kids to get dressed and fed. I readied the RV for travel by transforming Aden’s bed back into the dinette table. This RV is disgustingly dirty; I made a mental note to add a bottle of surface cleaner and some paper towels to the running shopping list.

When Andi finished his calls, he and Aden wrapped up our Starlink satellite dish, then we drove over to the dump station to empty our RV septic. This RV has a cassette toilet which is a suitcase-looking box that we manually pull out of the RV to dump. We used a cassette toilet when we rented a RV in New Zealand several years ago.

Aden is Andi’s little helper when it comes to all things, including the RV. He was right there helping Andi until the cassette dumped out into the hole. Then, he lost it. Like, literally lost it — it being his breakfast.

Ha ha. I took over for Aden and helped Andi finish the septic job. “I’ll do any job,” Aden said afterwards, “I just can’t do that again,” he pleaded.

This morning, we planned to visit the Port Arthur Historic Site. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site as the best preserved convict settlement in Australia, Port Arthur represents the foundational history of the country. Between 1788 and 1868, convicts were shipped to present-day Australia from Britain and Ireland. Convict labor built infrastructure for the new British colony, leaving behind settlements like Port Arthur. Some of the convicts were reformed and went on to become early settlers in the states of New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania), and Western Australia.

Today, over 30 buildings are left standing at the Port Arthur Historic Site. Visitors can tour several of them to learn about Australia’s convict-era history.

Imagine settling such a place as Tasmania! The penitentiary overlooked the sparkling waters of Stewart’s Bay, as well as the Commandant’s House, an asylum, gardens, and a church.

Included in our admission ticket was a 30-minute harbor cruise to see the Isle of the Dead (cemetery) and Point Puer boys' prison. This was a nice way to get onto the water to see Port Arthur from a different perspective.

The location of Port Arthur is what I found most interesting. The penal colony was settled at the end of Tasman Peninsula, and the only way to & from was through a small “neck” of land no more than 30 meters wide. Securing the access point were 9-18 ferocious dogs tied up closely together. In order for an escaped convict to get away, they had to cross “The Dog Line,” or risk the shark-infested ocean waters.

We learned about Port Arthur’s history by attending several free talks from park workers and listening to a self-guided tour I found on YouTube. It’s one of those places that you don’t really know what you’re looking at if you don’t hear the stories behind it all.

The four of us drove our RV into the town of Port Arthur for lunch after our tour. With a population of 250 people, there were very few restaurant options. The one Andi picked — Diggers Kitchen — was actually a VFW club. The sign said “open to the public,” so we went inside.

The man working the counter was very friendly, and helped us order drinks and food. Andi ordered the pork schnitzel special, Aden and Tory both ordered chicken nuggets, I ordered the chunked chook (chicken) sandwich thinking it was the healthiest option available. Unfortunately, all our food was deep fried. Oh well, we ate lunch while playing a round of cards together.

After lunch, I suggested we check out the Tasmania Lavender Farm which overlooks Long Bay. This locally-owned farm invites guests to wander through its beautiful lavender fields, or enjoy something from the cafe or gift shop. Yes, we discovered too late that there was a cafe here with a delicious-looking menu.

Andi, Tory, Aden, and I took a stroll through the lavender. It was a beautiful place, so peaceful, and it smelled amazing.

Afterwards, Andi and the kids shared a piece of chocolate mud pie and vanilla ice cream from the lavender farm’s cafe.

Next, I wanted to see some of the natural sites around Tasman Bay. We drove to the Eaglehawk Neck area — the narrow strip of land where there was once a dog line. We navigated our RV to the Blowhole first, and walked down to the overlook. Once a small cave, the geological rock formation now is a huge hole that sends clouds of sea spray through its opening.

A short drive away, we visited the Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen which are similar rock formations carved by millions of years of wind and water erosion. The wind and waves were impressive, even today, as the water crashed against the sea cliffs. It was a beautiful sight and we had it all to ourselves.

Before hopping back into the RV, the four of us walked down to the fishing pier / harbor. Several groups of young adults were basking in the sunshine, though it was anything but warm outside. The wild wind made the air feel quite brisk.

Andi approached a lone fisherman at the end of the dock, and asked what he was catching. The man said he had calamari, and would we like to take one home with us to cook at our campsite? We thought that was awfully kind of him to offer. The man was excited to learn we were from the United States, and said he’d lived in Seattle several years ago.

Back in our RV, Andi drove us to our camping spot for the night. He reserved us a place to stay in someone’s backyard through an app called HipCamp. We helped ourselves into the gate, then found a spot to park. It cost $30 AUD ($18 USD) to stay & included power to plug our RV into for the night.

This type of camping is much more our style — we enjoy the openness of nature, not being parked next to other campers, and the ability to come & go as we please.

Tory and Aden entertained themselves for quite a while by playing frisbee and feeding carrots to two horses in the neighboring pasture. The sun was shining and it wasn’t windy at all in this spot, so I did my workout outside the RV in the grassy lawn.

For dinner, Andi made the kids spaghetti & warmed up leftover sausage and green beans for himself. We spent the remainder of the evening relaxing inside the RV.

Tomorrow, we’ll start our journey north along Tasmania’s eastern coastline.