10th Week - Saturday - Port Arthur

Two weeks today and we will be driving the Calder!  Not much left in our "to do" list now.  Up and returned to Port Arthur Historic Site for another 3 hours of wandering around.  Today's major visit was the Asylum and Museum and then The Separate Prison which locked convicts in a single cell for 23 hours with 1 hour allowed for exercise a day in a high walled yard.  They did not see another person except the guard who let them out in the exercise yard and they were not allowed to speak.  They could attend a church service but once again were put in cubicles so that they could only see the minister and no-one else.  They also had to stand for the whole service.  We had lunch at the cafe and picked up a brochure for Coal Mines Historic Site which is also ran by Port Arthur.  As it was a beautiful day (even though the forecast was for rain) we decided to head to the Coal Mine.  The site housed 600 convicts and military personnel with the convicts working in a coal mine.  The brochure made it sound really good so we drove the 25 minutes to it.  You enter a National Park and come to a car park.  We couldn't see any signs for ruins so we continued driving into the NP.  We then found signs for the main shaft and further on the air shaft.  We followed the sign to the air shaft and then found a sign that indicated you had to walk.  We couldn't see how far it was and the signage was confusing.  We decided to go back to the main car park.  We had a bit of a look around and found a sign for the convict settlement, a 800 metre walk.  So off we go.  On the walk we saw ruins to the stone prisoner's barracks and punishment cells, commanding officer's quarters, surgeon and soldier's quarters, chapel and bakehouse.  You could then continue walking to the mine shaft and air shaft which took about 3 hours.  We only did the settlement walk and although it was an enjoyable walk if you are thinking of doing it I suggest you do it before going to Port Arthur Historic Site or skip it and just do Port Arthur.  Took an alternate route back to the caravan park.