Return to Bruny Island

[Kyle]Our last morning in Hobart came a little too soon, but time, tide, and rental car agreements and all that... We were headed back to Bruny Island for our second trip in only two years (last there in Feb 2020). {Maryanne: It's lovely to visit old favourites, I much prefer to see new places and this time I was determined to get to see a little of South Bruny Island (last time we only got as far as the beautiful isthmus). We compromised and planned an anchorage in both the north and the south - both anchorages new to us}.

The wind was against us again, so we spent almost the rest of the daylight tacking down the Derwent River and then the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Little Fancy Bay, which was medium and normal.

Little Fancy Bay on (North) Bruny Island. I'm not sure if the crabs were fighting among themselves or working as a team to eat that clam.

Scenes from Bruny Island

I didn’t have any particular itinerary in mind, but I knew the Chuckle Head Conservation Area adjacent had trails and that if we walked just the right ones, we may even emerge at the Bruny Island Cheese and Beer Company in time for lunch. Now we had a plan.

Or so I thought. Over lunch, Maryanne did some map perusing of her own and determined that for only an extra 6k to the 14k we were already going to walk today anyway, we could take the Cape Queen Elizabeth Track to Miles Beach on the opposite, eastern side of the island. There, we could see the Bruny Arch, a hunk of rock on a beach. Did you say a rock on a beach? I’m in!

Bruny Arch (and the cliffs around Miles Beach)

It was a pretty good rock. Plus, there was some other nice, unadvertised stuff as well, upon which we climbed away to our hearts' content. We paid for it particularly with the last few kilometers home. I joked to Maryanne that we seem to be having trouble keeping our easy shore ambles from morphing into half-marathon bushwalks. She promised an easy day tomorrow.

We were up early again for the downwind sail to Jetty Beach, near the southern tip of Bruny Island. After a bit of checking, it seemed the weather wasn’t going to be the best for a couple of days. We decided that if we wanted to walk the trail to the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, it would be best to do it this afternoon - Maryanne booked us in for a tour.

From Jetty Beach on (South) Bruny Island, we walked across the island to enjoy the views around (and up) Cape Bruny Lighthouse

Well, you know where this is going. As we were descending the last of the hill on returning to Jetty Beach, we decided there was still enough daylight left to walk the Luggaboine Circuit Track. It would double our hike, but then we might have a chance to spot some of the island’s less famous trees. They were nice, to be sure, but we soon decided that maybe had bitten off more than we could chew.

Scenes from the Luggaboine Circuite Track (making the most of the good weather)

A small cruise ship that had been anchored near us had been shuttling passengers back and forth to the beach all day. As the sun fell, fog suddenly rolled in that was so thick that we could no longer see them or the beach. An hour or so later, we heard the fog signal for a power-driven vessel underway and knew that they had departed for their next stop at Wineglass Bay.

Luckily, the weather really was bad that night and the next day, so we were able to sleep in, then spend the rest of the day comparing groans at each unwanted muscle movement. The storm changed the north winds to south. We waited a day for the worst of them to blow out and then joined up with them for the trip back to Maria Island.