Bruny Island cruise and a special dinner.

Sunday 10^th Sept, 2017.

Part of the planning for the birthday weekend, was a Bruny Island cruise, which involved crossing over to Bruny Island on the vehicular ferry, then driving to Adventure Bay to the departure point of the Pennicott wilderness cruise, the same company we did the Tasman Island cruise with last week. For the less mobile, the Tasman Island cruise would probably be better. For this one, we parked about 100m down the road from the office, then walked another 150-200m to the jetty, whereas with the TP cruise, we parked practically at the door and were bussed to the jetty and didn’t have to walk very far at all. Not a problem for us, but might matter to some. The locals probably know to expect brown’s cows wandering down the street at whatever time it was!

We had to leave Hobart by about 7.45-8am to be at Kettering in time for the 9am ferry, to be at Adventure Bay for the 11am departure time of the cruise. BTW, ‘cruise’ is a term used very loosely. They both have the potential to be very rough! We make the 9am ferry with no problem, except for a slight navigation problem, which sees us turn off one street too soon before the ferry terminal. It’s a bright, sunny day and it looks as though we’re going to have a terrific time. We board easily, apparently at a place where Captain Cook landed back in the day, and head east around Penguin Island, out into the open seas. The captain of the boat is again, very professional and takes no risks during the day, thankfully! The Fluted Cape is something special, topped only by the sea cliffs of the Tasman Peninsula for the title of the southern hemisphere’s tallest sea cliffs. I’ve got to say, the scenery along this coast is pretty much all beaten by the coast along the Tasman Peninsula. If I could only do one of these cruises, the TP would be the pick. The captain, sorry, I forget his name, was a very informative and interesting guide, with enough humour thrown in to keep the info from being dry, and he was also a very skilful navigator, taking no unnecessary chances with his cargo. 

We stopped to look at the Arched Cave, which funnily has one golden arch curved over it. The gold colour is caused by iron oxide. Thanks Trevor for reminding me. 2 sets of ears on the job is much better! There’s another spot that we stop at where there is a rock stack called the Madonna and if the sea is really calm, they drive the boat between the mainland and the stack, but today there is a bit of a swell running, so is not safe. We also stop to see a Blowhole pumping, that’s always fun to see. 

The run down south to the Bridge Rock and The Friars takes about 15 minutes and it’s tough going. We’re running headfirst into a 3 metre swell and it’s like we’re on a roller-coaster! The squeals of some of the passengers are really funny, you can tell when we hit the crest and the water drops away from under the boat. Sometimes the captain backs off the throttle, that’s when you know the drop is going to be bigger. Fun at first, but 15 minutes worth becomes a bit tedious. The payoff when we get as far south as ‘The Friars’, the edge of the Southern Ocean, is the fur seal ‘bachelor pad’ on the rocks. This is also the point at which we meet up with the other 2 boats running the cruise today; being Sunday, it’s in high demand. The other payoff is that we’re sheltered here from the swell coming from the south, so it’s a great relief from the ups and downs. 

From here, we head back to Adventure Bay, stopping whenever an interesting seabird flies past. With a following swell, it’s a much calmer trip, but several people finally succumb to motion sickness. The rest of the party group are sitting at the rear of the boat, the most stable part of the boat, also the part of the boat the sickies head for because of the stability. So glad we opted for the middle section! 

Back to dry land, a toilet stop and time to head back to the ferry. We’ve got a 6.30pm booking for dinner at a very nice restaurant, so we need to be on the 5pm ferry at the latest. Seeing as we’re coming back to Bruny for a few days, we don’t stop anywhere on the way back, but the others do and, long story short, they miss the ferry. Arrangements are made to push the restaurant booking back to 7pm, so we have a bit of breathing space to shower and change before going to dinner. It’s at Mure’s, not that far from where we’re staying so decide to walk.

We don’t arrive much before the others, just enough to check out the wine list and see that they mark up the Frogmore Creek wines by 100%. Not a good first impression. Trevor and I both order the seafood laksa and it’s really good, but I don’t think it matters where we eat, it’s the company that makes the meal. We can see ‘The Drunken Admiral’ across the dock and Craig tells us that it’s a really good place to eat too. Maybe we’ll find out when we come back to Hobart next weekend.

Dessert is an ice cream downstairs, and I have a lemon gelato, which unfortunately doesn’t compare to Anita’s in Sydney. Turns out, all the ice creams are Streets, which is a bit disappointing, when you would expect Mure’s to showcase the local Valhalla ice creams. Out in the carpark, there is a fabric item on the ground. We assume it’s a t-shirt, but on closer inspection, it’s a black bra. Crikey!! It must be a 20DD!! No-one is game to go near it, it might be booby-trapped! We walk back with Tarasa and Shane as far as the Woolstore and say our goodbyes, they’re flying out early in the morning. We’ve had a fun time with them.