November 6, 2009

• Tasmania, Day one.

  October 31st, 2009.

  Basic plan, fly into Hobart, drive to Port Arthur.
  Dinner at the Historic Site, followed by ghost tour.

  
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  We arrived at 'Storm Bay Guest House' at 2pm, only  a 15min drive from the Port Arthur Historic Site. It's a beautiful Bed and Breakfast with amazing views from the deck:

  

  

  
  After a few hours relaxing, we headed to the Port Arthur Historic Site early so that we'd have time to have a look at the ruins in the daylight before the ghost tour.

  note:
  
  For those of you who don't know the history of Port Arthur, (here is a link to the wiki page) the basic overview is that in the 1830's Port Arthur served as Penal Colony.
  
  In addition to being an place of amazing historic significance, in 1996 a gunman went on a shooting spree at the Port Arthur Historic site, killing 35 people and injuring approx 20 more.

  /note.

  I didn't realise it at the time I booked our tickets, but it was Halloween and we were booked in to do the Ghost Tour!

  We arrived at about 5pm, and mists had just started to come down around the buildings. This is the first sight you get of the ruins, it's the shell of the main Penitentiary:
  
  

  

  The orange/yellow house behind the ruins is (I think) the Commadant's Office.

  

  
  
  The ruins higher on the hill in this shot, are the remains of the hospital, and the house to the right of the shot, behind the tree is the Policeman's Residence.

  (here is a link to a Port Arthur Site Map).

  

  Ross looking smug inside the ruins of the Penitentiary.

  

  Ross and I.

  
  
  
  
  Mist rolling into the bay.

  At about 6.30pm, Ross and I went to 'Felons Bistro' a restaurant located in the visitor's center (dinner was included in the Ghost Tour tickets).
  
  After dinner, we lined up for the Ghost Tour.

  The
  thing about the Ghost Tour is that there are no theatrics to make it
  spookier. The only things that make it spooky are the location, and the
  fact that it's dark.
  

  
  

  I
  only took a few photos during the tour, and none of them turned out
  very well, but here is one of the few that shows the true spookiness of
  the evening. That's our tour guide Todd Darling at the far right of the shot, with the church ruins in the background. After the tour finished, we headed back to the Visitor's Centre to pick up our 'Certificate of Bravery' and headed out to the carpark to head back to the B&B.

  I overheard a lady who'd been on our tour telling her friend that she'd been able to feel the ghosts touching her hair .... *shiver*.

  I didn't see any ghosts myself, but I did feel uncomfortable in two of the buildings, one was the 'Separate Prison' and the other was the 'Autopsy Room' under the surgeon's house.

  The Separate Prison in particular had very bad energy.

  .
  

  • 8:09 am
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