Elliott Ridge Campground to Blanket Bay Campground (GOW Trip)

 19 February 2024 (Day 2) 16 -20 degrees

 https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/great-otway-national-park/things-to-do/great-ocean-walk

https://www.greatoceanwalk.info/

https://www.thegreatoceanwalk.com/official-sections/

During the night when we I woke I thought it was raining, but it was the sound of wind high in the beautiful trees.  We also heard lots of wildlife including koalas during the night. This morning we spotted a koala high in a tree above the campground.

https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/sites/great-ocean-walk---elliot-ridge-hike-in-campsites

https://www.greatoceanwalk.info/blanket-bay-to-parker-inlet-hike/

Today’s walk was on fire trails through tall Mountain Ash forest with varying other foliage. This track would be very hard going in wet conditions as it would turn to a gluey mud. When approaching the Blanket Bay Campground it is quite a steep descent. We saw and heard lots of small birds toward the end of today’s walk. One with red around the eyes and red on underside of tail feathers, smaller and finer than a wren, miniature parrot like bird in lime green/yellow, “Silvereye “and a small blue and redparrot. 

This campground is pretty, however the individual sites are less well defined than at Elliot River Campground.

 https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/sites/great-ocean-walk---blanket-bay-hike-in-campsites

We spent the afternoon exploring the area - the herth from the lighthouse storage shed, the amazing rock formations and rock pools. 

It was great to see Blanket Bay all the way from low tide to high tide and how it changed. 

Low Tide in the middle of the day

High Tide at Sunset

We explored the neighbouring drive in campground, the two sites closest to the beach and the picnic shelter look lovely. Late in the afternoon we were joined by a group of year 9 boys doing their Outdoor Ed this week. The were very hyped when they arrived but settled down pretty well.

 

We watched the sunset over the ocean.  Unfortunately there was too much cloud cover to produce any stunning colour.

 

Statistics

Distance    12.33km

Time         3 hours 35 minutes

Ascent      232m

Descent     377m

Temperatures 16.2 – 20.1 degrees Celcius

Big Talbingo Mountain and Old Jounama Homestead (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Sunday 22 December 2019 – 280 355

After a slow start this morning, we drove to the Cumberland Range Trail Head and continued to the 4WD carpark.  From here we hiked to the top of Big Talbingo Mountain.  The views from the top on a clear day would be incredible.  Through the smoke (which is currently covering the entire Eastern seaboard of Australia) we could make out boats on Talbingo Reservoir.  There is a fire tower and weather station, amongst other things, at the top, where a NPWS ranger watches for fires in the forestry on the opposite shore of Talbingo Reservoir.  We then hiked to a lookout that views Landers Falls – this is only a narrow stream of water but has an incredibly long drop.

 https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/landers-falls-lookout-walk

Landers Falls

After a picnic lunch we headed partway along Lob’s Hole Ravine Road to the Jounama Heritage Walk.  This took us to the sites of three homesteads, none of which had anything significant remaining.  We then drove to the Old Jounama Homestead Site – which has been lovingly looked after, with several walls and chimneys remaining and the garden plants carefully labelled.

Then back for a relaxing swim in Jounama Creek to finish the day.

Port Arthur

Friday 16 January 2015

Port Arthur today!  Now this was a day that I thought Hayden would consider a boring one, but in fact he really was fascinated.  It took one and a half hours to get to Port Arthur from Hobart, and as seems to be the case with all Tasmanian roads we were constantly ascending, descending or turning on long bends, often also ascending or descending at the same time.  

We had Silver passes to Port Arthur which included an Introductory Tour, a harbour cruise, a guided tour of Point Puer Boys Prison and an audio tour of the ruins.  My only negative comment would be that the advice given when collecting the ipod app gave the impression that you had to select what you wished to listen to, however after listening to all the sections, it seems we could have done it as one continuous walking tour.  Lunch was included, and was more than adequate – I didn’t eat dinner. We arrived at 09:00, and we left at 18:00 not because we were finished but because we needed to get home and get Hayden to bed. Now I see why the tickets are set up to allow entry on two consecutive days – there is so much to see and explore.  Next time, I would stay on the Tasman Peninsula – as originally advised to do – as we didn’t get time to see everything at Port Arthur and look at the Dog Lines, Tessellated Pavements and show Hayden just how narrow Eaglehawk Neck is.

https://portarthur.org.au/

Penitentiary

Point Puer

Bread oven ruins

Port Arthur Hospital

Port Arthur Hospital

Police Station

Port Arthur Hospital

A few things I learnt today that I thought were interesting:

-the boys prison had sixty-eight to eight hundred boys at a time.  The boys did apprenticeships in a variety of trades to give them an option other than crime once released – obviously not all took the option of work, but some did

-the buildings and houses were much more numerous and more densely packed than I had previously realized from looking at the ruins.  Many of the buildings had been wooden and destroyed in bushfires in 1895 and 1897; in addition many of the stone and brick buildings were dismantled and recycled into buildings elsewhere

-female convicts descendants (not just the convicts themselves) had smaller babies that were more sickly and this persisted into the 20^th century

-how skilled much of the work done on site was, for example the manufacture of the church bells

-the degree of isolation in the separate prison – 23 hours per day in a solitary cell, 1 hour each day in a solitary exercise yard, food through a hole, church in individual standing cubicles with vertical walls above head height, a mask to be worn whenever outside the cell.  Pretty cruel!!

Below are extracts from “Rules to be Observed by the Convicts”:

64.      The convicts, upon no pretence whatever, are to attempt holding any communication with each other, either by words or signs, and must never read aloud, sing, whistle, dance or make any other noise in their cells, exercise yards, corridors or chapel.  The convicts are only to be addressed by the number of their cells, and no man must ever use his name in communication with the officers placed over him.

83.      Convicts will be allowed to write one letter, and to receive another every three months; and when desirous of writing, application is to be made to the officer of their division for the necessary materials.