Bruny Island

Today we explored Bruny Island. With a return crossing on the Sealink ferry paid for on-line, all we had to do was drive 40 minutes to Kettering and get in the queue. The ferry runs about every 20-30 minutes and you just drive on one end and then off at the other end 15 minutes later! Too easy.

First stop was the Truganini Lookout at The Neck. This a Short Tailed Shearwater and Fairy Penguin (aka our Little Blue Penguin) rookery area. The sand hills are covered in shearwater burrows but all the birds were out at sea fishing. A pity we aren't at these places at dusk to see them coming home.

The Neck is a very narrow spit of land connecting the northern and southern parts of Bruny Island.

We then took a detour left (in the photo above) to Adventure Bay where we had a coffee and visited the Bligh Museum. This is a very quaint brick building with lots of information about Bligh and other early explorers of the area (including James Cook and Joseph Banks). There is a walk out to Fluted Cape but is a few hours return so we weren't able to do that.

We then visited both a local raspberry farm (unfortunately the raspberries aren't ripe enough for picking yet) and a chocolate maker. We purchased a small sample of their products and moved on.

By now we were feeling peckish so stopped at Hotel Bruny at Alonnah, the only place that resembles a town on the island. Miriam had salted squid rings and salad and I opted for a small Seafood Chowder which was excellent washed down with a local beer.


After lunch we had three things left to do: drive to the bottom of the island to visit the Cape Bruny lighthouse, see if we could find a white wallaby (these are very common on the island) and get some freshly shucked oysters. The first one was easy but did entail about a 40 minute drive on a dirt road.

The photo above is Miriam channelling Princess Di at the Taj Mahal!

We then headed back towards the top of the island but still no white wallaby. Then, as we passed a wide field, Miriam spotted one. A quick u-turn and I managed to snap it before it jumped off into the bush.

With that accomplished, all we needed was the oysters. Unfortunately, because we had taken longer doing what we had done, when we got back to 'Get Shucked' they were closed! All we could do then was carry on to the ferry terminal at Roberts Point and join the queue. We didn't have to wait long as the ferry was already unloading and they just squeezed us on as the last car for that crossing.

It's our last day here tomorrow and we have a few things planned. Tonight we are having a few snacks in our room and will try to finish some of the beer/wine/gin we still have with us.

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