Friday morning was windy and we got up packed up before brekky and got on the road to Kettering to catch the ferry to Bruny Island, we’ll find some brekky on the way. We arrived at Kettering at 9.30am and there was a ferry just about to leave so we made it, still no brekky, the apples we bought on the side of the road in Huonville come in handy at times like these (and they are the best apples we have ever tasted).
Once on the island we drove to the north to the closest picnic spot on the map, Barnes Bay, and in a bay so we thought it would be protected but we were quickly reminded that on a windy day on an island sometimes there are no protected areas from the wind!!! And it started to rain….again. Decided to drive a bit further north to see the area and saw a beautiful view over Bull Bay
and turned up in a spot called Dennes Point. Next find The Neck Campground…yes good $10/night but busy, the only other 2 spots of bush camping are on the south of the island and one you have to drive along the beach so guess where we went…beach. We had to do a 3.3km drive along the Cloudy Bay beach and a little jump up onto an old unused 4WD track that took us to a bush camp, Cloudy Corner Campground.
What a miserable day, cold, wet, windy and it didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten much and it was about 1pm. Made a hot cuppa and the rain started again, so we need food, grab the cereal and the milk and our cuppas and we jumped in the car…ahhhhhh…our tummies were full, we were warm and dry and stuck in the car till the rain stopped. Now what do we do? We decided to stay one night mainly because our access was on the beach and we had no idea what the tides were doing except that about lunch time the water was low enough for the car to drive here and it was not all bad here; there was only two other cars here and we had a pit toilet all to our selves …OMG what am I saying. 2.30pm and yeh the sun is coming out, a walk on the beach and the wind is easing off too…we ended our afternoon making no bake lemon slice, meat and veggies for dinner and a peaceful night sleep. This is our 4th night we haven’t set up the canvas on the van, so we have been in the car or in bed (pod)…hahaha like two peas in a pod.
Saturday morning we were greated by three cars full of young people, so we figured the beach was accessible any time, so we were off to Adventure Bay, where all the tourists go for a boat ride. We had been told by many about the yellow boats that cruise the Tasman Sea to the Southern Ocean and how great it is, so we thought we would see what all the fuss was about. Again we arrived at 11am and the cruise was just about to leave so we paid, ordered lunch for our return, thought a quick trip to the loo was in order and followed the crowd down to the jetty.
Three boats went out, we were on the third, the back of the boat was the most stable and we could stand up as much as we liked so that’s where we sat and in our opinion we had the best seat in the boat. We shared the back with two others and we had a roof over our heads so when it did rain (and it did a little) we were covered. We were all given lovely wet weather gear
and there were a few times we were grateful for them. The cruise was (another) one of the best things we have done. Nature is a grand and wonderful thing, we saw caves, the ‘breathing’ cave, birds, seals, organ pipe cliffs on the coastline, we even went into a cave for a while to get out of the rain and we ended up out into the southern ocean. We had two staff on board, we were given ginger tablets at the start in case of seasickness, we were told about the rocks, the kelp, coloured algae, the birds, the landscape….it was just an amazing 3 hours.
Three boats went out, we were on the third, the back of the boat was the most stable and we could stand up as much as we liked so that’s where we sat and in our opinion we had the best seat in the boat. We shared the back with two others and we had a roof over our heads so when it did rain (and it did a little) we were covered. We were all given lovely wet weather gear
and there were a few times we were grateful for them. The cruise was (another) one of the best things we have done. Nature is a grand and wonderful thing, we saw caves, the ‘breathing’ cave, birds, seals, organ pipe cliffs on the coastline, we even went into a cave for a while to get out of the rain and we ended up out into the southern ocean. We had two staff on board, we were given ginger tablets at the start in case of seasickness, we were told about the rocks, the kelp, coloured algae, the birds, the landscape….it was just an amazing 3 hours.
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| The Breathing Cave |
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| Fluted Cape |
Ahhhhh back on dry land we had hot pumpkin soup for lunch and drove back to The Neck Campground for the next two nights. This arvo the weather has improved so we went down to the beach and walked 2km to the penguin rookery.
We were told a couple of weeks ago the penguins didn’t come out of the water till 10pm so we drove back about 9pm. There was a young couple from Hong Kong on a working holiday and they were the only ones there everyone else had left and not a penguin in site. We waited with the young couple till after 10pm and we gave up, all the chicks have obviously flown the coop.
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| The Neck, BrunyIsland |
We were told a couple of weeks ago the penguins didn’t come out of the water till 10pm so we drove back about 9pm. There was a young couple from Hong Kong on a working holiday and they were the only ones there everyone else had left and not a penguin in site. We waited with the young couple till after 10pm and we gave up, all the chicks have obviously flown the coop.
Sunday we drive around the rest of the island: Cape Bruny Lighthouse
and the campground close by to have a look (a bit out of the way but access to some major bush walking tracks), then we came across a couple of blokes broken down and we towed them back to the nearest town, Lunawanna. With our good deed done for the day we went back to Adventure Bay and made ourselves some lunch, the sun is out but it is a very windy day today so we drive around and go back to camp for some quiet time with the wild wind blowing around us. Tomorrow it is back to the little main land and off toward Lake Pedder, Strathgordon and the Gordon Dam.
and the campground close by to have a look (a bit out of the way but access to some major bush walking tracks), then we came across a couple of blokes broken down and we towed them back to the nearest town, Lunawanna. With our good deed done for the day we went back to Adventure Bay and made ourselves some lunch, the sun is out but it is a very windy day today so we drive around and go back to camp for some quiet time with the wild wind blowing around us. Tomorrow it is back to the little main land and off toward Lake Pedder, Strathgordon and the Gordon Dam.
Cheers.
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