Tasman Peninsula

This is our last day in Tasmania and we wanted to see some of the
coastline of this beautiful state. Even though Port Arthur is the most
famous part of the Tasman Peninsula, we didn't feel that a quick run
through of the historic site would do it justice. We plan to come back
to the area in the near future, so we decided that we'll visit Port Arthur
then. In the meantime, there is so much beauty in this area, it wasn't
hard to fill the day. The first interesting thing we saw was a boat
going through the swing bridge. It was fun to watch the bridge
turn and run parallel to the water. Apparently, it's a unique enough
event that dozens of cars pulled over to the side of the road to
watch. There's a story that a fee must be paid to the bridge tender
to have the bridge opened. That fee is a bottle of beer!


At Tasman National Park, there is a pullover called Devil's Kitchen,
where you can see the effects of the waves and tides on the cliffs.
This is a pretty dramatic coastline, and it's being worn away slowly
by erosion.


We took a short hike to a place called Tasman Arch. This is a
direct result of the erosion I mentioned. Someday the bridge part
of this arch will collapse.


There are lots of beaches that would be fun to spend some time on,
just taking a long stroll.


Our last stop was at the Tessellated Pavement State Reserve.

According to Wikipedia: "A tessellated pavement is a rare erosional feature
formed in flat sedimentary rock formations lying on some ocean shores.
The pavement bears this name because the rock has fractured into polygonal
blocks that resemble tiles, or tessellations. The cracks (or joints) were formed
when the rock fractured through the action of stress on the Earth's crust and
subsequently were modified by sand and wave action".

This is one of the few places on earth this occurs, and it was interesting to see.


One could spend several days on the Tasman Peninsula, exploring all the small
bays and inlets and many of the tiny towns. I'm looking forward to visiting again
someday.