It is a grim change going from a hotel on the harbour side of Hobart to the rainy cold nights on Bruny Island. I don’t think we’ve seen one star yet in our two nights at the Neck Reserve Camping Area, but we have seen sparking cold raindrops.
We have not yet seen penguins on our journey in Tasmania. I have seen other birds though which spark my interests. The flying kind. In particular at Cloudy Bay on Bruny Island I saw a Pink Robin, Albatros, Red-Capped Plover. On the open ocean, during our cruise, we saw many black-faced Cormorants and also a few beautiful seals.
Yesterday, upon leaving our hotel in Hobart, we travelled up Mount Wellington. The road turned out to be closed and I wasn’t fully prepared when we hopped out of the car given I thought we were just going to look out but Mitchell had plans to climb the full mountain. Having a foot with a bruise on the heel and a blister by my big toe, I was not fully convinced that I would enjoy the walk from the cafe to the top which was 4 km, 8 km return, and indeed I started off limping. But, as we walked up the mountain and it providing shelter from the wind, it turns out that Mitchell was spot on and I really enjoyed the walk. It was quite possibly one of the most beautiful walks I’ve ever been on. Last time I was at Mount Wellington it was cloudy and we were not able to see anything.
Below is a photo of the stairs that were lined with compacted snow from the many footsteps that had traversed the mountain.
From here, we travelled down the hill to Huonville a place that I wished to visit as it was named after a French captain who sailed this area as part of a French expedition with two ships. Sadly one of their ships went missing and Captain Huon De Kermadec tried to find his lost Admiral but to no avail.
We travelled across onto Bruny Island on the night of the 18 May setting up our tent at a place we decided to spend two nights. Below is a photo of our campsite.
We looked for penguins for over an hour on the Bruny Island neck lookout. But to no avail. I did learn here about the Short-Tailed Sheerwaters who migrate for spring and summer to Tasmania and southern Easton Australia to lay one single egg. They fly 15,000 km from the northern hemisphere down to this area of the world nesting in the same borough that they dig underground with the same partner each year.
We picked up a takeaway pub meal last night and went to bed after having a quick campfire with some very friendly wallabies.
This morning we went on a cruise boat ride down to the south end of Bruny Island which is almost parallel with the southern end of Tasmania. This was a fairly wild ride as out of Adventure Bay. The waters were quite rough.
We were taken past a spot called two tree lookout. Which is a place where Captain James Cook likely refilled is freshwater supply barrels for his ship and crew.
The rocks we passed were quite magnificent. We took many photos. We also saw a coal seam beneath the rocks of Bruny Island. Below you can see the coal just above the waterline where the cliff face is black and slightly receded.
Further down the coast, I took some photos in black-and-white as it seemed to match the mood better.
It starts to rain as we travelling into open waters both the seabreeze and the rain hitting our faces and stinging. Appropriate time for a selfie.
Heading out onto open waters to an island just south of Bruny Island, I forget its name, we saw seals finally. They were small and far off but I was able to get a few photos.
We returned to the cafe that we had breakfast at and ordered a second meal as it was very nice. I had the bruschetta for a second time.
I got out of the car to check out the two tree lookout where Captain Cook apparently would have stopped to fill his water barrels.
After this we visited cloudy Bay at the other end of the island which is where I saw many of the birds I mentioned above. I took some photos of the landscape which was very beautiful.
Halfway through writing this blog Mitchell points out that he finally sees some stars as he sets off for a walk along the beach, we are the. hit by a sprinkle of rain again. Below is our tent and stars.
