Bruny Island

Thursday the 8^th Feb we left Port Huon with the destination being Bruny Island. A long weekend was starting the next day for Tasmanians and we wanted to make sure we had a good campsite secured. Kay & Derek have only three weeks to see the rest of Tazzie so we needed to keep moving.

Linda and I wanted to find fresh water to top off our tanks and fill a couple of drums but the council in the area does not do a good job in that regard. There was either no drinking water to be found at public places or the drinking water taps at the dump points was the sole tap, ie the one directly above the dump point. The girl at the Huonville Information Centre tried to find us a fresh water fill up but was not successful. All information centres are obliged to be able to supply fresh water for the travelling public. Pretty poor show really.

So we moved on with the water we had in the tanks. After a walk around the town of Cygnet we crossed over the mountain through Nicholls Rivulet to Kettering where we boarded the ferry to Bruny Island. There was very little waiting. We were second in queuing up to pay and only had fifteen minutes to wait before sailing. Once on the island we headed straight for The Neck Campground, found a good spot and set up camp. There was no view but a good swimming beach was right across the road and we had drop toilets and water that we could use for washing. I have a 12 volt shower pump so I don’t have to use my tank water for showers. I just use the non drinking water from the tap and have the pump sitting in the bucket in the shower recess and use my jump pack for power and have it sitting outside the shower recess. So we can shower using that water in our own shower. Pretty cool.

A very short walk from our campsite and we had the beach in all its glory. We wound up having a couple of swims there.

One of the reasons for choosing The Neck Campground was that there was a penguin rookery nearby at the Neck Lookout. So we were able to go up a short distance at dusk to see if we could see some penguins. Dusk in Tazzie on daylight savings time in summer is quite late. So the first penguins did not show till about 9.30pm. There were just two or three to start with and about 10pm five or six came running up the beach. Could not get any photos in the bad light. Satisfied with that we went back to camp. 

Next morning, Friday the 9^th we went to Adventure Bay to do the Fluted Walk. Firstly there was the history to read. The Aboriginal story is a sad one.

Then off to the end of the beach where the walk begins. The walk took us out to the point where Penguin Island is. It is not that there are many penguins there, it just got the name from a random penguin seen there once.

Then it was a steep climb up the cliffs.

The rock formations were amazing. One European backpacker thought it would be cool to get a selfie whilst standing on top of one of these outcrops of rocks. It might have been until he could not get back to the cliff from the outcrop and a helicopter had to fly from Hobart to rescue him. It was a $6000 bill. I suppose mummy and daddy had to pay.

It was a great walk and the scenery was awesome.

After the walk we went back to camp for lunch. Then off to the lookout where the rookery is. It is an amazing view and The neck is an amazing bit of geography.

From there we went to the ‘Beer and Cheese’ shop and enjoyed their beer and sampled some cheese. Whoever thought a place like that would be popular? Forgot to get a photo.

Then we went to ‘Get Shucked’ and just caught them before they closed so we could get a dozen oysters to enjoy back at camp. Enjoy them we did with some drinks and dinner. Another big day in a beautiful place.

The next morning Linda and I headed into Adventure Bay for the Bruny Island Cruise with a stop on the way to get gas and a visit to the Chocolate Factory. Kay & Derek went for a drive to Cloudy Bay.

We had heard a lot about the Bruny Island Cruise and, although it is a bit expensive, decided to give it a go. We were not disappointed. Hamish and Linda were our young skippers and they kept us entertained with their humour. We were told to wear warm clothing as it is ten degrees cooler when you get to the southern ocean. I am sure that is true but we had such a beautiful calm day for our cruise that we didn’t need the warm clothing. We did need the red wet weather ponchos they give you but that was enough.

The cliffs and caves were spectacular.

The ride in the powerful boat was a lot of fun. They took us through the rocky outcrops in this one spot. Unfortunately I can upload videos but they don't play. I don't know what the problem is.

This blowhole was cool.

More cliffs and more caves. I did not get tired of them.

Then we hit the southern ocean and the rocky islands where the seals hang out. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. They stank really bad but it was very entertaining.

The weather was so good that the skipper was able to go further into the southern ocean where the final amazing cave was. The swell was only around one metre but it is usually much higher, ie 4 to 8 metres. The tour boats only get to that spot about 15 times a year and it was our lucky day.

On the way back Hamish and Linda took us on a wide arc out to see and showed us the albatross’s and other birds hunting for fish. No photos could really capture that. Not on my little camera anyway and it was not a trip we could risk bringing Linda’s good camera on.

It was an awesome cruise, so much fun and worth the money.

On Sunday Kay and Derek left the island to head to the west coast. As we wanted to complete our touring of the island because we would not be returning on this trip, Linda and I stayed another day. So we drove to Cloudy Bay. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bleak but we were still able to go for a short walk past the point and check out a surf competition that was happening.

On the way back we stopped in at the winery at Alonna and had lunch. Such good food there. It was packed. Rain stopped us from doing a walk at Alonna. The pub there was packed as well. The bottle shop is well stocked and not into price gouging, amazing!

We kept going as we had enough time and so we did a drive to the North Island and checked out Barnes Bay, Dennes Point and Killora. It was a very pretty drive.

We also stopped in at the Quarantine Reserve. It began in 1838 and was initially used to quarantine people for smallpox and other diseases. It was used in 1918 to quarantine returned servicemen from WW1, which was the time when the world was experiencing a flu epidemic.  It was used in latter years to quarantine various plants that were being introduced into the country.

Apart from another look at the beach that concluded our time on Bruny Island. We thoroughly enjoyed Bruny.