We ended up being glad we caught the early ferry; the next ferry is at 9:30 and we’d have been rushing for the rest of the trip. Bruny Island is split into two parts, north and south by a narrow strip of land called the “Neck”. Just as we entered the Neck, there was a short walk to a penguin viewing platform, and a walk up to a lookout. Like fools, we went up to the lookout. The view was magnificent, but that’s 200 something steps (Melyssa counted them) and it took some of us several days to recover proper use of our thighs.
There were no penguins to be seen, of course, as they were out at sea hunting. We were surprised to see penguin burrows all the way to the very top of the hill.
Our next stop was Adventure Bay. No, it’s not called Adventure bay as some kind of advertising gimmick. Captain Cook named it after one of his boats or something. It was the regular stop for all the big name adventurers back in the 18th Century.
We had a lovely coffee & muffin at the Pennicott adventure base, but decided that at $300 a family, the boat trip was too steep for us, though the pictures of the otherwise inaccessible southern end of the island were spectacular. Instead we decided to try the kayaking rental a little futher along the beach, so’s I could finally get my kayaking fix – but no, they were taking the day off.
So we abandoned that and went berry picking instead. It’s the first time that we’ve done that with Tali, though Melyssa has picked strawberrys before. A good time was had by all – though we didn’t try eating Tali’s strawberrys. We ended up buying about 3 kg of berries for later consumption. Just up the road, there was a chocolate shop. And a cheese factory further along. Berries | Chocolate | Cheese – a familiar pattern ;-). The chocolate shop was okay. Worth stopping in if you’re going by, but nothing special.
From the Chocolate shop we wandered around to the other side of the island, to Alonnah and Lunnawanna. We checked out Australia’s most southerly winery, and bought a bottle of chardonnay for later. By now it was lunch, and the only place open was the general store – by now this had become a familiar refrain. But the general store had beautiful home made pies – real good, including the Tasmanian classic, Curried Scallop Pie.
From here, we chose to go back to the other side of the island by following the forestry track over the top of the mountain in the middle of the island. This wasn’t quite a four wheel drive track, but it was certainly rough. I’d planned to find a side trip that was a real 4wd track, but I’d also planned to ride the downhill portion on my bike, so Kath ‘volunteered’ to drive the track. I’ll have to plan that better next time. Because we did find a little side trip that probably was 4wd only, to a little lookout with sensational views across the western side of Bruny Island, and onto the Tasmanian mainland.
Riding my bike downhill was quite an experience – the track was rough and steep (about 10% gradient). I had to hold the brakes on firmly the whole time, and towards the end I began to fear that my wrists weren’t going to survive to the bottom, given the pounding they were getting. Fun though, lots of fun.
After this we hung around on the beach at Adventure bay for a couple of hours, letting the girls play in the sand and the waves while Mum and Dad slept on the beach.
One of our daughter’s magically transformed into a mermaid.
On the way out of Bruny Island we stopped at the cheese factory. This is the best cheese factory I’ve ever been to. Worth the visit to Bruny Island all by itself. I particularly liked their t-shirts: “My Life is all about the Cheese”. The names of their cheese are quite creative - we bought “Tom” (named after a mate), “Bastard” (so named since it’s a mix if cow and goat’s milk), and “Saint” – balances out the Bastard, apparently. These are seriously nice cheeses.
Finally the ferry trip home, and dinner, and then we chilled out over Bruny Island wine, cheese, berries, fudge, and chocolate.
This was our favourite day so far.
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