Bruny Island
After a week in Ross where we dodged flooding and put up with a fair bit of rain, it was time to pack up (wet) and head for Bruny Island. This was a bigger drive than we’d done for a while, but, including the ferry, was still less than three hours.
We had a quick stop just south of Hobart for some supplies and a much-needed bath for the dog, which he was most unhappy about. But after a month of him living outside in the wet and mud it was definitely required.
The ferry trip to Bruny Island is only 15 minutes so we didn’t bother getting out of the car, and instead stayed in eating our sandwiches on the way. Once off the ferry, we needed to drive to South Bruny to get to our next stop at Adventure Bay. Bruny Island is made up of two bits – north and south, with a narrow section called “The Neck” in-between, and nothing is too far away – it was about 40 minutes from the ferry to Adventure Bay.
Bruny Island is also known for its white wallabies, and annoyingly I was the only one of us who didn’t see one, but we did spot a little echidna who didn’t seem to mind coming right up to us.
We arrived at Adventure Bay and set up in our little spot which we hoped would be out of the wind as there were big gum trees everywhere. The beach is lovely, cold of course, but only about 100 metres away from the tent.
Thankfully, this campsite had a big camp kitchen, with a fireplace and couches! We hadn’t sat on a couch for a while so all of us gravitated towards them. We are self-sufficient so don’t need access to camp kitchens, but when it is cold and wet there’s something quite nice about just using a regular kitchen and sitting inside to eat, so we used this kitchen a lot while we were there.
Because the weather wasn’t great, we decided to hit the shops, which on Bruny means cheese, whiskey, oysters, chocolate and honey. We also found this really cool little roadside stall selling bread out of old fridges. It was too cold to spend too much time browsing, but we picked up some ANZAC slice there to eat later.
The weather across the whole five days there was changeable so it was a little hard to plan what to do, but we did manage to get to the beach, try and bit of fishing and drive over most of the island. I snuck out for a two-hour bush walk in the National Park which was quite challenging – up, up, up, then walking along the edge of a very high cliff face where it was quite slippery underfoot, then back through the lower section which was quite muddy. I even managed to encounter hail up there, twice, and have brilliant sunshine at the top for just enough time to take a few photos.
When we were in Ross and facing evacuation with the flooding, we trialled a new pack-up method where we basically packed the entire car the night before, so in the morning of departure we only had to pack up the beds and drop the tent. It only really works when you have a camp kitchen at your disposal (using their fridge to put breakfast/lunch stuff) and sink for dishes and will be no good when we’re free camping and have our own bathroom etc, but for these types of places it works quite well. So, we did that again at Adventure Bay, mainly to get everything packed away during a break in the rain, but also to facilitate an easy get away the next day. It still seems to take us forever to get it all done, but we’re getting better at the pack up, although not that much faster as yet.
Anyway, we packed up and said goodbye to the friends we’d made at the campground (a couple from Alice Springs – Allen and Pia), and drove off to get the ferry back to Hobart. We were a bit excited about getting to Hobart as we’re staying with friends here who have acreage, a couple of horses, a couple of dogs (Labradors no less) and had very kindly set up their brand-new shed for us with tables, a lounge suite, TV and games for the kids. Of course, now that we’ve got a place with a solid roof for a bit, the weather has come good and it hasn’t rained since we got here. I’ve even dug into my stuff for a pair of shorts – for the first time since we left!!
