Breakfast was homemade fruit salad with vanilla yoghurt, a nice big filling bowl of warm oat porridge, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea with milk and one sugar. It was a great way to start the day, especially as we knew we were having a relatively light lunch.
Our first port of call for the day was the Bicheno information centre where we bought my souvenir magnet and commemerative penguin postcard. We asked for directions to the blow hole and headed off. It was only a few minutes away so we were soon at a section of rocky but pristine beach. Mr Smart went to explore some rock pools and managed to find crabs, starfish, limpets, pippies, and more.
The blow hole was on a pristine section of rocky beach. All the beaches we've seen in fact have been pristine. There were quite a few tourists perched on the rocks around the blow hole itself, one so close that I found myself muttering "This won't end well." But no one managed to get drenched while we were there. At one point, Mr Smart managed to get on the opposite side of the blow hole from me and we both managed to catch an eruption that blotted the other from the picture. We had quite a chuckle about that and as I processed the photos I realised a stranger front and back also appears in the shots, and my.. isn't he priceless!?
After the blow hole we headed on further down the Freycinet Peninsula to Coles Bay. We needed fuel so that was our first stop. I hadn't seen an Ampol in years but it seemed to be the only petrol station in that little town. $1.78 per litre, most expensive tank of fuel in my life thus far! With the tank full again, it was off to the to the Freycinet Marine Farm for lunch. It's a working farm for oysters, mussels and other seaford but they have a very simple, unpretencious little canteen just off the highway that serves up super fresh seafood.
We started with a cold seafood platter containing oysters, mussels, pickled octopus, smoked salmon and Tasmanian brie and a fresh bread roll followed by hot scallops and abalone slices in a Japanese-style sauce with another fresh bread roll. Seafood isn't terribly filling and I still hadn't eaten my fill of fresh oysters so we ordered a dozen natural oysters and scallops in garlic butter with one final bread roll. It was a wonderful meal and experience. In fact it was really the only reason we'd ventured down to Coles Bay, so back in the car we hopped and set off on the longest driving leg of our trip.
Now a long trip has to have a few stops of course, stretch your legs, take in local sights, buy wine. We stopped at Gala Estate in Cranbrook. It looked like an abandoned farm building by the side of the road. Were it not for the warning signs announcing 'Gala Estate 400m' we might have just drive straight past. The interior was very rustic country feel but it was very unassuming and homey. We found plentiful stores of wine and a huge basket of locally grown walnuts and were greeted by a small girl of about five. "Mum" she called with a smile, and our hostess appeared.
We tasted a few wines, a light Pinot Noir in the Beaujolais style, a heavy Pinot Noir and a late harvest Reisling. I also tried one of the beautiful fresh walnuts. We chatted about wines and produce and her family enterprise. Her husband is part of the seventh generation of their family in Tasmania. His great-great-great-great-grandfather was one of the passengers on the first boat of free men to Tasmania. We ended up with a bottle of the light Pinot, a Reisling and a bag of walnuts. I see a cheese platter in the near future.
We also stopped at Milton Vineyard also in Cranbrook to try a Gewürztraminer. Neither of us was very sure of it. I didn't hate it, that's for sure, but with two bottles of wine already purchased and luggage space finite, I didn't love it enough to plump for it's $27 price tag. This wasn't a great cellar door experience either as the lady behind the bar seemed almost utterly indifferent to our being there.
We didn't stop for a while after that. A brief sidetrack to look at a section of beach, but nothing after that until Triabunna. I'd been driving for quite a while at this point and needed caffeinating. Mr Smart too, though travelling in a navigational capacity, was a little on the sleepy side. We went to a local cafe and Mr Smart ordered his usual skinny latte. I was going to have an iced coffee, but the place we went makes theirs with syrup not with real coffee, so I went for an affogato instead. After our coffees we had a quick walk around to spot some historic buildings (some of which were for sale) and then we headed off again.
Our destination on this long travel leg was The Mussel Boys in Taranna near the Port Arthur historic site. This was our bed for the evening. A bit of a disappointment really. It could have been really good but it just smacked of people who didn't want to be running an accommodation site. This suspicion was confirmed when going through their dilapidated visitors book when we came across a business for sale listing. There was no breakfast and no internet, which admittedly I did know when booking, no restaurant as they were no longer running it, a weird shower set up, pumped tank water, no intructions for using the provided appliances and light switches in weird places!
However, not ones to be put off, we decided to book into the Port Arthur Ghost Tour for the evening and then to go and find a restaurant or cafe with internet so we could sit and finish Tuesday's blog together, Mr Smart writing and I furiously assembling the photos. We spotted nothing on our way to Port Arthur but we went in and bought our tickets for the Ghost Tour and for Thursday's entry and historial tour as well and we asked the lady serving us if she could think of anywhere we could go. She directed us the Village Hub at Parsons Bay Retreat in Nubeena, owned by friends of hers.
We had a little under two hours to use before our Ghost Tour and the pressure was on. We had little trouble finding it as we hadn't quite caught the name the first time but eventually we found ourselves there. We walked in and said "We want dinner and internet please" and Rachel said "Well you've come to the right place". She seated us, gave us the internet password, cold water and menus and left us to it.
As it turns out, my booking a room with no internet was a fortuitous event. Were it not for my lack of foresight we would never have discovered this divine eatery. Mr Smart and I found ourselves staring at the most remarkable specials board either of us had ever seen.
Everything sounded tasty and creative, everything seemed different and new and it was all so modestly priced. For the first time in forever, it took me and Mr Smart a very short amount of time indeed to pick from the menu. Rachel was soon back to take our order and we parked our furious internetting and gave her our attention. Food was ordered, internetting resumed and we excitedly anticipated the arrival of a wonderful meal. We were not disappointed.
We were not kept waiting long. Table service was really great. Not so fast that you felt rushed, but fast enough that the table did not feel cluttered with dirty dishes, our water bottle was exchanged swiftly. Our needs were obviously being surreptitiously monitored.
I ordered the Herb crusted wallaby rump with creamy mashed potato, zucchini and mushroom sauce and Mr Smart had the 'Wallaburger', a wallaby burger with crispy bacon, tasty cheese, lettuce, beetroot relish and mayonnaise in a Turkish bun. Both were astonishingly good. I swapped Mr Smart a third of mine for a third of his so we both got to taste them both. Mr Smart was most definitely considering licking the plates. So now we've both also eaten wallaby, two new meats in one meal!
Lastly, dessert. I'm on holidays so I decided to indulge. I couldn't resist the Pumpkin pie slice. It was only $4 too! Unbelievably good value. It had pumpkin coloured edible glitter on top and sparkled in the sun setting over the bay. Most magical dessert I've experienced in a long time. It came with runny cream so I just poured the tiniest dribble along the side of it. After questioning, it turned out that Rachel makes all the baked goodies herself. The woman is clearly a marvel.Spectacular food, interesting and creative, modest prices, fabulous service. stacked with culinary geniuses, a view to die for and ambiance coming out of your ears. We decided then and there to make the most of our proximity to this establishment the following day as much as we could. Put this place on your must do Tassie list everyone! We came for the internet, we will return for the food.
At 8:15pm sharp we posted Part 1 of Tuesday's blog, downed laptops and raced back to Port Arthur in time for our Ghost Tour with our guide for the evening, Todd Darling. Apparently among the Port Arthur staff he's known as "The Prince of Darkness", a joking reference to the fact that he has worked there 14 years but has never once been on the day/historic shift. He certainly knows his ghost stories though and claims to have seen five ghosts himself and heard many more.
He explained that for the purposes of ghost tours, they don't include any stories that haven't been experienced by less than three people. If someone has a ghostly experience they can fill out a form as a 'proof' and three forms will mean the story is considered 'true'. They do often look for matching historical figures and appropriate circumstances but generally the tours are just about fun. I am pretty skeptical about ghosts but it was fun to listen to the tales, including details of reactions from Ghost Tours of the past.
My favourite ghost story for the night was one told early in the evening. Our first stop was in front of the ruinous remains of Government Cottage. Several people claim to have seen a redcoat in that area. Through various ghostly interactions they believe he was a soldier guarding Port Arthur who was about to be shipped off to fight the war in New Zealand. One night while guarding he tripped, fell and broke his neck and died.
In life he was determined not to be sent to New Zealand as he feared he would die there and then no money would return to his wife and child and they would starve. This unfinished business is what's said to keep the ghost guarding Port Arthur. He can't face his death as this would mean facing the realisation that he had failed them and that they had perished. He has been known to ask people "Halt! What's the password?" and no one knows what it is but Todd's suggestion was to pick something very British.
We had no ghostly visitations on our tour, no one fainted, no one's hair turned white in an instant, but our guide did managed to make us jump once or twice. I wasn't scared, but I was glad of Mr Smart's hand around mine on a couple of occasions. When the tour concluded we were both issued with certificates stating that we did with bravery and courage complete a Ghost Tour at the Port Arthur Historic Site.
We wended our way back to our bed in Taranna, watching closely for wildlife on the road. We've seen a ridiculous amount of roadkill on this trip, it's been heartbreaking to see. When we got back the light switches in weird places definitely caught us out. It was light when we arrived and then headed off so we hadn't actually located any yet, so in practical darkness we had to unlock our door and find a light switch. It was a bit of a pain in the arse. Once we were in though, we settled on the floor and couch to offload photos and have a glass of Moscato each and then went to bed.
Jess
No comments:
Post a Comment