South to Bruny

Today marks the start of our journey south from Hobart. Not sure how much we will get done in the time, but you have to start somewhere.

We started at the Shot Tower south of Sandy Bay. An impressive structure designed with a single purpose – to produce shot for canon and pistols. I imagine it was a valued piece of infrastructure and it was certainly built to last, even if some wondered at its placement so far south of Hobart. Alas, the pleasure of climbing it was denied us as we chose not to spend $28 on the five minutes of entertainment it may have provided us.

So we continued down the coast, in and out of the bays, over the hills. Tasmania isn’t big on roadside lookouts and each time we went investigating a side road we wound up down the hill in somebody’s driveway.

The town of Snug had an intriguing name and an intriguing butcher. I had no idea you could buy a mutton bird even though they were considered good eating by early sealers and whalers, and so in the tradition of trying new things on holidays we now have one in the fridge awaiting an opportune moment.

From there it was a short hop to the Bruny ferry and the island that was our target for the night. For us, famous for food, and so we needed to stop at the smokehouse, then the cheesery (not a word I knew before here), but avoided the chocolatier. Lets say the prices hurt enough to curb our spending but we still had a rich set of appetisers for the night.

To work off some tastings we climbed to the top of the dune at the north end of the isthmus that joins the two halves of Bruny for some stunning views, and then down to the south east corner for a bit of a walk. While the coastal scenery was lovely as expected, the narrow rocky ocean between Bruny and Penguin Island turned up some remarkable sea life at the bottom of the tide.

From there it was somewhat west to our campsite, via a tall hill affording great views. The pines campsite is near a beach near the south end of the island. For us, a quiet camp and our first opportunity for a campfire. I had other plans so the muttonbird stayed in the fridge while we had pan seared salmon fillets with twice-cooked potatoes au devondale served with beetroot relish. Yum!