30 September 2005 (Day 25)
We got ourselves up, showered and breakfasted and were at the dive shed by 8.30 to find out if we were going to be able to dive today – yesterday apparently there was a huge swell and not a chance of getting the boat out. Gary, the proprietor, told us that we’d be able to dive today although it wouldn’t be the best. He started on the paperwork as Michael, the third diver for today, arrived.
Gary started dishing out the wetsuits for the day – thick 7mm two piece wetsuits. As he passed them out he said “try it on” so we did. Little did we know that ‘trying it on’ meant that we were to wear them until we returned from the dive. This meant we couldn’t have what we did start to call a ‘Wolffa’ (named after the man himself and his habit of having a nervous wee prior to a dive) but now call a PESS – Pre-Emersion Safety Stop!
We got all the gear we needed and climbed into the back of a Land Cruiser, which by reports from the driver, didn’t have good breaks. Re-assuring!
On the way down to the pier we were told that there was a penguin crossing on the road and that they come out to go to their roost at about 9pm.
We got to the pier and loaded up the small boat with all the required gear and then headed out to the dive site, only about 20 minutes away. As we pulled up a seal came to the surface to see what was going on. We were told that if the seal was in a playful mood it may come and play with us.
All four of us jumped into the icy water - 12°C. The only exposed part of our bodies were our faces and when you hit the water, you felt it! As Daniel bobbed to the surface his weight belt slid down around his knees. He moved towards the boat where he then lay on his back whilst the skipper reattached the belt for him.
Time to descend. We released the air from our BCDs. Everyone started to go down, except for Daniel. The 33 lbs he was carrying wasn’t enough to help him get down and stay down so again he went over to the boat where he was given another 3lbs.
Finally we were all down in the 12°C water, amongst kelp and rocks. No coral here. Also no masses of fish. The area is famous for sea dragons, but none of them either.
We swam around for 50 minutes looking but all that was found was a small draughtsboard shark, three or four lobsters and a heap of abalone.
Daniel came up with a headache. Not the best feeling when you’ve been at pressure for 50 minutes. Whilst having a surface interval of an hour, we had cup-a-soup and a kit kat each and the Divemaster gave us a demonstration of how to loose your cap. Her cap blew off and she went to catch it with her hand with the soup in it. She wore the soup and the cap still went into the water. She jumped in to get the cap.
Daniel did do the second dive, but this one was only in a maximum of 9 metres of water. Not very deep and not much to see at all. A very disappointing dive, especially when the Divemaster jumped out of the water before the rest of us because she was too cold, even though she wore a dry suit.
The trip back in made Daniel feel very seedy. We got back to the shop and washed the gear before racing into the dive digs for a hot shower. After a while Daniel started to feel a little more human.
We headed into Port Arthur and had a little look around the grounds before making our way back to the information centre to start our ghost tour.
As the tour was at 6:30pm there were a number of kids. We started off at the chapel where we were told of one brutal murder and of another suspicious death where someone fell from the roof and where his blood spilt nothing would grow. The kids started to get scared.
We then headed into the Parson’s house where we sat in a darkened room lit only by a single candle. The Parson’s house is supposed to be the most haunted place in Australia. We were told a story of how the Parson’s wife set a trap for the ghost. One child cried the whole way through. Somewhat distracting, but by far the most distracting thing was the flashes of everyone’s cameras. Given how dark it was, the flash was blinding.
As we left the Parson’s house the mother of the child spoke to the guide. He organised a car to pick them up.
We then moved onto another house where the ghosts of a small girl and a 16 year old boy holding a baby walked the roof. We saw nothing.
From there it was down into the mortuary under the Surgeon General’s residence. Before going down there some people left the trail to take photos. They didn’t see the deep trench that they fell down.
In the mortuary we went into the dissection room. Dissections were done on convicts as opposed to an autopsy – the difference being that an autopsy is done to find out the cause of death, whilst a dissection is done to have a sticky beak.
We heard various tails of ghost experiences, including one involving a former guide who had to leave because of the effect it had on her.
A sheep scull sat on the slab and was used to make noise to scare people. It worked. The remaining young boy couldn’t handle it and started to cry. Another car came and picked him and his mother and grandmother up.
Finally we moved onto the Silent Prison. This prison was used to punish the repeat offenders in Port Arthur. We sat as the prisoners would have almost 150 years ago – in complete silence. Prisoners were not allowed to make any noise. Any noise was punished. They were isolated and guards wore velvet slippers to reduce any noise they made. The prisoners were given numbered disks and were only referred to by that number. They had the opportunity to go to church where they were locked into individual stalls and could not see anyone else. They were totally isolated from everyone. And if they misbehaved in there, they went into solitary confinement which was a tiny cell, in complete darkness with walls a metre thick. Four doors separated the prisoner from the world.
We left the Silent Prison. Again, no ghosts. That was the end of the tour and we headed back to the information centre. On the way back we asked about the guide who left. It turns out that it was Linda from our tour of Fremantle Prison!
We then took some photos in the dark of the lit up church, but without any way of seeing where to go we were very limited in where we could go.
We then raced around to the restaurant that is a part of the hotel which backs onto the Port Arthur grounds. Although it was just 8pm, the grill was closed. We were, however, able to get a chicken parmagiana each.
We then headed down to where the penguins were reportedly crossing. It was a few minutes after 9pm but we saw nothing crossing the street. One penguin was on the side of the road and Daniel was able to photograph it.
We went down onto the beach and tried to find some more but to no avail. It was even difficult to find our way back to the road.
We went back to the dive digs and went straight to bed.
Gary started dishing out the wetsuits for the day – thick 7mm two piece wetsuits. As he passed them out he said “try it on” so we did. Little did we know that ‘trying it on’ meant that we were to wear them until we returned from the dive. This meant we couldn’t have what we did start to call a ‘Wolffa’ (named after the man himself and his habit of having a nervous wee prior to a dive) but now call a PESS – Pre-Emersion Safety Stop!
We got all the gear we needed and climbed into the back of a Land Cruiser, which by reports from the driver, didn’t have good breaks. Re-assuring!
On the way down to the pier we were told that there was a penguin crossing on the road and that they come out to go to their roost at about 9pm.
We got to the pier and loaded up the small boat with all the required gear and then headed out to the dive site, only about 20 minutes away. As we pulled up a seal came to the surface to see what was going on. We were told that if the seal was in a playful mood it may come and play with us.
All four of us jumped into the icy water - 12°C. The only exposed part of our bodies were our faces and when you hit the water, you felt it! As Daniel bobbed to the surface his weight belt slid down around his knees. He moved towards the boat where he then lay on his back whilst the skipper reattached the belt for him.
Time to descend. We released the air from our BCDs. Everyone started to go down, except for Daniel. The 33 lbs he was carrying wasn’t enough to help him get down and stay down so again he went over to the boat where he was given another 3lbs.
Finally we were all down in the 12°C water, amongst kelp and rocks. No coral here. Also no masses of fish. The area is famous for sea dragons, but none of them either.
We swam around for 50 minutes looking but all that was found was a small draughtsboard shark, three or four lobsters and a heap of abalone.
Daniel came up with a headache. Not the best feeling when you’ve been at pressure for 50 minutes. Whilst having a surface interval of an hour, we had cup-a-soup and a kit kat each and the Divemaster gave us a demonstration of how to loose your cap. Her cap blew off and she went to catch it with her hand with the soup in it. She wore the soup and the cap still went into the water. She jumped in to get the cap.
Daniel did do the second dive, but this one was only in a maximum of 9 metres of water. Not very deep and not much to see at all. A very disappointing dive, especially when the Divemaster jumped out of the water before the rest of us because she was too cold, even though she wore a dry suit.
The trip back in made Daniel feel very seedy. We got back to the shop and washed the gear before racing into the dive digs for a hot shower. After a while Daniel started to feel a little more human.
We headed into Port Arthur and had a little look around the grounds before making our way back to the information centre to start our ghost tour.
As the tour was at 6:30pm there were a number of kids. We started off at the chapel where we were told of one brutal murder and of another suspicious death where someone fell from the roof and where his blood spilt nothing would grow. The kids started to get scared.
We then headed into the Parson’s house where we sat in a darkened room lit only by a single candle. The Parson’s house is supposed to be the most haunted place in Australia. We were told a story of how the Parson’s wife set a trap for the ghost. One child cried the whole way through. Somewhat distracting, but by far the most distracting thing was the flashes of everyone’s cameras. Given how dark it was, the flash was blinding.
As we left the Parson’s house the mother of the child spoke to the guide. He organised a car to pick them up.
We then moved onto another house where the ghosts of a small girl and a 16 year old boy holding a baby walked the roof. We saw nothing.
From there it was down into the mortuary under the Surgeon General’s residence. Before going down there some people left the trail to take photos. They didn’t see the deep trench that they fell down.
In the mortuary we went into the dissection room. Dissections were done on convicts as opposed to an autopsy – the difference being that an autopsy is done to find out the cause of death, whilst a dissection is done to have a sticky beak.
We heard various tails of ghost experiences, including one involving a former guide who had to leave because of the effect it had on her.
A sheep scull sat on the slab and was used to make noise to scare people. It worked. The remaining young boy couldn’t handle it and started to cry. Another car came and picked him and his mother and grandmother up.
Finally we moved onto the Silent Prison. This prison was used to punish the repeat offenders in Port Arthur. We sat as the prisoners would have almost 150 years ago – in complete silence. Prisoners were not allowed to make any noise. Any noise was punished. They were isolated and guards wore velvet slippers to reduce any noise they made. The prisoners were given numbered disks and were only referred to by that number. They had the opportunity to go to church where they were locked into individual stalls and could not see anyone else. They were totally isolated from everyone. And if they misbehaved in there, they went into solitary confinement which was a tiny cell, in complete darkness with walls a metre thick. Four doors separated the prisoner from the world.
We left the Silent Prison. Again, no ghosts. That was the end of the tour and we headed back to the information centre. On the way back we asked about the guide who left. It turns out that it was Linda from our tour of Fremantle Prison!
We then took some photos in the dark of the lit up church, but without any way of seeing where to go we were very limited in where we could go.
We then raced around to the restaurant that is a part of the hotel which backs onto the Port Arthur grounds. Although it was just 8pm, the grill was closed. We were, however, able to get a chicken parmagiana each.
We then headed down to where the penguins were reportedly crossing. It was a few minutes after 9pm but we saw nothing crossing the street. One penguin was on the side of the road and Daniel was able to photograph it.
We went down onto the beach and tried to find some more but to no avail. It was even difficult to find our way back to the road.
We went back to the dive digs and went straight to bed.
posted by Daniel & Helen at
11:02 AM
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