Wednesday 13th Sept, 2017.
I’d read that travel over the roads on
Bruny is slower than many people expect when they arrive. I thought I’d allowed
for that, but obviously not enough, especially when it’s been raining through
the night and early this morning. Cape Bruny Lighthouse and an exploration of
Cloudy Bay is on the list for today, lunch at the Bruny Hotel, drive up to Adventure
Bay to try and find the elusive white wallabies, and hopefully be back up at
The Neck after the council workers have packed up for the day.
I’m lucky to get over 40km/hr on the road
down to Cape Bruny and I laugh when we approach a settlement and the posted
speed limit is 50km/hr. We drive past some roadworks and the speed limit is
40km/hr, so I’m right at home.
It’s still possible to take a tour of Cape
Bruny Lighthouse, and I’m keen. It’s not a particularly tall tower because it’s
on a high cape, so shouldn’t be too challenging. It’s $10 per head, per adult,
on top of the $24 park entry fee. Why $24? Why not $20? And why not put some of
the $$ towards getting the road graded? It’s an honesty system, so it’s
doubtful whether or not everyone pays, so why not round it down to $20 or less
because it was hard scratching up the $4! Anyway, we paid, then forgot to put
the ticket on the windscreen anyway!
Adam was our guide at the lighthouse and he
was a bit of a character. He said he was a ‘Sydney boy’, turns out he meant he
was a ‘Woy Woy boy’! Damned small world! I did all my schooling at Woy Woy!
Cape Bruny was decommissioned and replaced by a solar powered light, but all
the parts remain intact. In other lighthouses, the original mechanisms were
replaced by the solar light, and they can never go back. Adam told us there’s a
group who want to fire up the light again, and turn it red for Dark MOFO.
That’d be pretty cool!
We had no intention of walking down to
Lighthouse Beach, but I wanted to visit the graveyard, and that was on the way
to the beach. Graveyards can be very poignant places, but this one is
especially so, some old graves having been rediscovered in the 1970’s. Priests
and doctors were few and far between in the 1800’s, so children often died
before they were baptised and therefore buried in graves with no name markers
on them. And then over the years, when their family was posted to another
station, they were forgotten. I find that really sad, but then I think we’re
far more sentimental about these things these days. I am anyway………….
Thankfully the rain had let up by the time
we got to the lighthouse, but there was an unusual northerly wind blowing
today. Unusual because Adam said it was. By the time we got to the Bruny Hotel,
it was in time for a late lunch, but worth the wait. We had herb and parmesan
crusted Tassie scallops, with chips and salad; and a lamb shoulder slow braised
in local honey and Bruny Island beer, served with steamed veggies. Both huge
serves and very delicious.
Quickly ducked back home to light the fire,
then we’re off to Adventure Bay. Had thoughts of calling in to the Chocolate
place on the way in, but it’s just on 4pm by now and they close at 4. Another
one to add to the list for on the way back to the ferry. We get fuel, and then
head of in search of the white wallabies. There are Bennett’s wallabies all
over the place, some very skittish but many will stand and pose for a photo.
There was a sign pointing to the Mavista picnic area and bush walking track, so
we figured maybe there’s be wallabies up there. We slowly cruised along the
road, wallaby spotting on the way, finally spotting a white one. Then of
course, as we drive around to the point, there’s one sitting out in plain site!
We’ve spent an hour on the hunt and the sun is slipping behind the hill.
Thankfully, The Neck is on the other side of the hill, so the sun is still
(just) up when we get there. We just have to find a way to get the car off the
road and into the semi completed carpark. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
We didn’t come all this way not to climb the many, many stairs to the lookout
at the top. Anyway, I didn’t make it to the top, it was a lot windier and
colder the higher you went and the view halfway up was very similar to what I
expected to see from the top, so halfway was good enough today. I need to leave
something in the tank, there’s a strong possibility that the Aurora might make
an appearance tonight.
After dinner, we gather up all our warmest
clothes, torches, cameras, tripods and whatever else we think we might need out
in the cold tonight. All along the road, there are signs advising that between
dusk and dawn, it’s wise to limit your speed to 45km/hr. Both to protect the
local wildlife and your vehicle. It is Sooo dark out here at night. There are
no street lights, or maybe one at an important intersection, you only have your
headlights to light your way, so high beam is the go, everywhere. Again, I’m
lucky to be doing 45km/hr and am prepared to quickly get out of the way of cars
behind me. Not that there are any! There are very few cars even during the day,
although we very nearly got cleaned up this afternoon by an absolute idiot who
thought cutting a blind corner would be ok. Lucky he/she was able to avoid us,
but I think they may have needed to change their pants! Absolute. Bloody.
Idiot. And that was in the daylight! So, out tonight, I notice headlights well
back behind us, so I find a likely spot to pull over to let the car catch up
and pass us. So what happens? Another bloody idiot! This one stops behind us
with the driver’s side headlight blaring into my side mirror. I start cursing
about this idiot when the red and blue flashing lights turn on. Oh. It’s the
local copper! I didn’t do anything!! His name is Justin and he’s doing
breathalysers and sees me as a likely suspect, indicated by my slow driving! We
get talking, we’re obviously not from around here, with our NSW rego plates and
space pod on the car roof. He asks us what we’re doing and when we tell him
we’re out Aurora spotting, we hit a good topic of conversation. Justin tells us
he got some good photos last week and his camera is in his truck. Do we want to
see his photos? Are we in a hurry? Yes, we’d love to, and no, we’ve got all
night! He runs back to grab his camera and turns out he took the photos at the
Alonnah pontoon, back in the other direction to where we’re headed. He says
he’ll drive in front and that’ll be enough to frighten off the wildlife so we
should be ok. He takes off like a scalded cat and by the time we pass by, the
wildlife are all back at their posts! One particularly smart wallaby runs in
front of the car 3 times. He’s just lucky that I had already stopped. We
possibly saw a Tassie Devil, but then definitely saw what looked like a black
cat running into the scrub and I don’t think there are any cats on Bruny, so
that must have been a Devil. We also saw a possum, not sure what sort, not one
that we’ve seen before. Not a brush tail and not a ring tail.
Cloudy Bay was very nice in the daylight,
windy, but nice. Tonight it is bloody freezing and the wind is howling. Maybe
not one of our better ideas. Justin has
driven the full length of the beach and all the way back before we decide it’s
too damn cold. Next stop south from here is the Antarctic! There’s no sign of
any colour in our photos, but the stars are amazing! We figure that it might be
more protected at Alonnah, so pack up and crawl back along the road and find
the jetty. I recommend reconnaissance is performed in daylight hours. It’s much
harder at night. No joy at the jetty either so we head back to our cottage,
where we have a southerly view anyway, so if anything happens, we’re as likely
to see it from there as anywhere. And it’s warmer, sheltered from the wind, and
we can have a glass of wine while we sit watch. Still nothing. Bummer.
Time to give up.
