Tasmania Trip Day One

After an early start we arrived in Brisbane at 8am where we were delayed for an hour or so. We then boarded for our nearly 3 hour flight to Hobart. We arrived about 1pm and cleared quarantine collected our bags and went to collect the hire car. KISA was unimpressed to find we had a Nissan Xtrail.
We headed for the Tasman Peninsula and pulled into Sorrell to get some groceries and some lunch. We had an uninspiring curried scallop pie each then hit woollies and the bottle shop. On our way again we drove for about an hour to reach Eaglehawk Neck, the narrow strip of land that joins the Tasman Peninsula to the mainland. A nearby lookout afforded wonderful views of the coast. We found our accomodation and settled in.
We are staying in an old convict settlement at the Cascades. It was used as a timber logging spot for the building work going on at Port Arthur. We are in one of the officers cottages. It has one bedroom, a sitting room/kitchen with an open fire and a bathroom. After settling in we checked out a little private museum attached to the cottages.
We went for a walk along the waterfront to the old convict jetty from where they shipped the logs and the sandstone they cut from the cliffs. Afterwards we sat at the seafront with a bottle of bubbles and watched the evening arrive. One of the locals, named Noel and his dog Penny, came to entertain us. He even took us to the ruins of the barracks and the solitary cell and gave us a little guided tour. There is a huge walnut tree in the barracks yard. We stayed watching the sea till about 8pm then went back to our cottage to cook tea and build the fire.
We cooked up some gnocchi with a bottled lemon cream sauce and salad and watched the fire. We crashed early as we had started at 4am. Slept very, very well in our iron bedstead. It was a cool night, a very pleasant change from Mackay
Our first glimpse of the magnificent Tasman Peninsula. As you can see the weather is beautiful, cool and not humid. A little museum is part of the group of cottages where we are staying. Among the curios was this huge crab shell We are staying in the old officers quarters of a former convict workstation. Ours is the middle door. The cottages are by the shores of Norfolk Bay. This is about 20 yards from our door. We went for a walk around the shore line. We came across some sandstone cliffs and a jetty from where they shipped the stone they cut and the logs they milled to Port Arthur.

The early settlers planted trees from home as they got so homesick. This is an oak tree and it is nearly 200 years old. We took some wine down to the shore about 7pm. The sun didn't set until 9.15 or so. We were in bed by then! While we were enjoying our wine, one of the locals came down to walk his dog. He was a bit of a character and gave us an impromptu history lesson and tour of the settlement. This is the living area of our cottage. It was cold enough in the evening for a fire. This made KISA very happy! The bedroom. That bed was surprisingly comfy!The bathroom came off this room.