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Year View| Summary| Highlights| Month View| Monday 3 December 2007 (Day View)

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03.12.2007 – Monday 3 December – Port Arthur

7:30am

• Got up. Packed. Turns out it’s raining. Walked to Lo-Cost Auto Rental, where we picked up our Hyundai Accent Auto, 2005 model. We’d booked a manual, but turns out they had an auto instead—which normally cost a little more, so can’t complain. I drove to Mount Wellington, through thick fog, which lifted just as we got to the top. We couldn’t have asked for better timing really. It was very cold, and didn’t take long before the fog began blowing back—something between sleet and cloud, cold and coming sideways. The car wouldn’t unlock with its remote key, due to the transmission towers on the mountain. The car radio also failed to work. Bronwen drove back to Lo-Cost Auto Rental, who changed a fuse, fixing the radio.

1:30pm

• I picked up an American tourist from the Pickled Frog—who Bronwen had met back in Brisbane—and we drove to Port Arthur, where we had chips for lunch and left our American friend. Bronwen and I went for a walk to Remarkable Caves and along the spectacularly cliffy coast, before getting a $20 campsite at Port Arthur Caravan Park.

Evening

• After setting up the tent, we went for another walk, had Bronwen’s curry for dinner, and wished it hadn’t again begun raining. A Launceston school is having some kind of camp here, so it’s very busy, with school kids all over the place.

Night

• The tent leaks from the corner of each window somehow. Fortunately it didn’t rain enough to be a big problem, though the two corners of the bed did get wet. The bed also went down a bit—fortunately not enough to really matter. Perhaps buying the cheapest inflatable air mattress and K-Mart tent wasn’t the way to go.