Main land Tassie to Bruny Island

Today was dedicated to the Salamanca Markets in Hobart CBD. Think of the west end markets except ten times bigger and less of the fruit and vegie part... i guess. Dave and I gorged ourselves on free tastings including wine, cheese, and fudge but the best part was the variety of fresh sea food and different cuisines. Our lunch menu was tempura mushrooms with soy and sweet chilli sauce, passionfruit fudge, and a mix basket of sea food baked and fried. It was a lovely day in the park with so much food. We may have spent over our budget today but it was worth it!

On the other side of the pier there was the annual wooden boat festival which was quite interesting including ships from the main land like the young endeavour, Melbourne Enterprise, few war ships, and hundreds of small wooden boats. We saw a multi-million dollar boat that was for sale with a sign “ask for tour”, I moved on and with my back turned and Dave was already on the boat getting a tour from the skipper. Again, you never know until you ask. That boat had 8 beds, 2 toilets, a massive lounge room with TV plasmas everywhere, the best kitchen ever, and a massive lounge/sun baking bed out the front. We were so amazed by the sheer volume of the boat we forgot to take photos. We stayed at Treasure Island Caravan Park for another night.

Bruny Island was our next destination which is located just south of Hobart which has about the same land mass size as Singapore but only has a few permanent people living on the island. The island reminds me of the Whitsundays; the water is crystal clear and extremely calm, the sand is white and squeaky, and plus it has a gorgeous mountain range around the bays. The only thing that gives it away is the fog in between the mountains. We arrived into the town of Ketting to get the barge over to Bruny around 12:03pm, I wasn’t sure of schedule so i looked it up and saw the ferry left at 12:05pm. I don’t think the troopy has worked so hard in its life. We were going crazy around the corners trying not to run anything over and made it within a minute of leaving; last one on. 15 minutes later we arrive on the banks of Bruny. We wondered the island for a while looking at set up near the south tip of the island. There was one problem though; in the process of finding a site to pull up in Dave may have made a mistake.  The video will tell the story.

Haha troppy’s first (possibly second) accident and it wasn’t my fault...all Davids! (I have to add before we left I did drive backwards into a roof gutter, oops) But to put the focus back onto Dave, that night he also broke our 1^st plate with a can of diced Tomatoes. Apparently the plates we bought are supposed to be unbreakable but it didn’t say invincible to tomatoes.

Valentine’s Day today! Dave had organised the Pennicott Wilderness Journey of Bruny Island for us which was a small 40 passenger speed boat with a massive 900 horse power that takes you on a 3 hour journey around the eastern southern end of the island. We left the jetty around 11am with 30 others in the boat and cruised out to the middle of the bay. We were given full length completely waterproof red jackets for the wet/cold winds, Blackmores grounded up ginger root tablets for travel sickness, and sunscreen (the little touches). We travelled through caves, saw 200 meter sheer cliff faces, passed through a fricken small gap between the cliffs, and got soaking wet by the Breathing Rock. The best bit was near the southern tip of the island where we got real close to the Australian Fur Seal. Some were in the water with one fin out of the water almost waving hello, others were fighting over the best lying position, but mostly they were sleeping. It was an amazing experience. Because Dave and I were sitting right at the front by ourselves we were able to get extremely close to some of them, it felt like an arms length. On our way back to the bay we came across a pod of dolphins. We spun around and followed them along the shore. To show how close we were Dave and I were leaning over the bow of the boat to see them swimming in front and got sprayed with water from there blow hole. By the end my cheeks were so sore from the constant smiling.  I could not have thought of a more beautiful, amazing day in my life. I know mum was up there smiling too.

After that exhausting day, we roamed the country side looking for something to do. We found it. The funniest number plate I’ll ever find yet. All I’ll say is: It’s the Tasmanians embracing THEIR local culture.

 I couldn’t stop laughing.

We cheated the rangers again for a night in a National Park on the south end of Bruny Island. The bay where we stayed was calm and very relaxing. One hard thing I’m finding with Tasmania is the sun is very ‘sharp’ as you only need to out there for 5 minutes and you start feeling the burning sensation, it’s got something to do with our location to the ozone layer. My tan is no longer L as I’m always rugged up to the T. That night Dave caught a massive Flathead around midnight, and had home made pizza's for dinner which were epic awesome!