Rug Up!

Today is an optional tour of Port Arthur, one of the men’s prisons which has been preserved.  We stop at a local highway tavern for morning tea….love this English tradition!…of tea and a muffin.  I notice a flyer on one of the posts in the dining room….”Cocktail of the Month!  Kalimotxo…$15.00…Red Wine, Ice, Coke”! 

We suit up in full length red heavy-plastic coats for a jet boat ride along the Tasman Peninsula.  It’s “only” a 5’ chop in the waters, but we buckle in which should be a clue of what to expect!  I am the only one in our group which chooses to sit in the front of the boat…second row…which gets more action than the back of the boat.

Our driver cruises steadily along and then floors it! Bounce, slam, slam! I’m a rag doll and loving it, and then it starts to rain!  Tasmanian rain seems to be frequent and short lasting often about 5-10 minutes.  I try to bounce while holding my hood down, and then it stops raining.  We see caves, sheer cliffs, waterfalls, birds, and lazy seals on the rocks.  During the two hours on the water, I’m glad for my 5 layers of clothes….counting their jacket, six…wool socks, boots, and gloves.  It rains six different times, and my fingers feel permanently frozen and fused to my hood!

It was great fun…except for the rain…but one nasty bounce sent the boat tilting to the right and my leg landed on the hard plastic ridge between seats.  I yelped!

We arrive at Port Arthur, but first lunch.  OAT is a wonderful company, but they provide too much food for us!  I eat pumpkin soup, a roll and apple, and save the 6” sub for another time.

I walk around the site, visit a small chapel with a practicing congregation and say a prayer for my family, and then the large church with only the exterior walls remaining.  Everything was built by convict labor.  They cut the stone, made the bricks, dug foundations and trenches, tiled the roofs, and paved the roads.  

Boys as young as 8 years old were charged as adults, at age 9 boys could be hung , and at 10, they were shipped half way around the world probably never to return home.  After a man or boy completed his sentence and was released, he could return to England…at his own expense or stay in Australia free of charge!

Punishment for men and women was solitary confinement often for a month or more and a diet of bread and water.  Repeat offenders at Port Arthur were sent to the “separate prison” which was a facility where quiet was enforced and coincidentally was next to the lunatic asylum.

I’ve already met several Australians who can trace their ancestors to former prisoners.  They are proud of the lives and families that these convicts created paving the way for them to be productive Australians. 

In Hobart which is a port city, Mt. Wellington is in the distance with snow on top.  A major bridge spans the Derwent River, and a barge carrying zinc ore hit one of the supports in 1985.  Two cars crashed into the river resulting in 5 deaths and 7 people died on the barge.  Today traffic stops in both directions whenever a ship passes under the bridge.  Remind you of anything in Baltimore?

Cadberry Chocolate has a factory here, and they were induced with an offer of permanent free electricity.

The “American Embassy”…McDonald’s…uses Australia as a test market for many products.

Australia with .05% of the world’s population has the highest rate of gambling.  Maybe this is because they can bet using a credit card?

The USA largest ranch in Texas of 1,000 acres doesn’t make the top 50 ranches or “stations” in Australia where some are a million acres or more.

“Rug up” means to wear warm clothes.  I have definitely been rugging up here!

Hobart known as the Apple Isle for years has a new agricultural product….poppies!  They are growing 62% of the world’s legal opium supply.  These plants have been modified to be extremely potent and are poisonous to the casual consumer.  People thinking they can make tea with these poppies to get high have ended up dead.

Marijuana is not legal in Australia, but medical usage was approved two years ago.  If you are caught with the drug without permission, you are issued a ticket to not use it.  If you are caught a second time, you receive another ticket but no penalty either time.  On your third offense, you must go to court.

Mail is delivered by “posties” on motorbikes!  Amazon is very limited, but eBay is popular.  Gun laws are strict, and it is difficult to get permission to owe one unless you are a farmer, belong to a gun club, or have written permission to hunt on someone’s land.  Guns are expensive, and police can enter your home without a warrant each year to see if your guns are properly stored.  It’s illegal to even have a blueprint for 3D printing of a gun, and handguns are also illegal.

“Busting for the loo” means you really have to go!

“Stuffed up!” such as “I really stuffed up that ….” means screwed up or the the “f” word we know too well.

Tasmania refers to lots of things as “Tassie”…people and products.  I guess this is similar to the mainland’s “Aussie”!

We are heading to Cradle Mountain, a national park, and snow is predicted with temperatures in the 30’s and high winds.  I will definitely be rugging up!