A Sampler Tour of Tasmania. Day 11

I got up early and as there had been no rain overnight the tent and ground sheet were nice and dry, I packed them up quickly in case any rain clouds came along. Then it was off to the camp kitchen for a leisurely breakfast before going for a sightseeing drive around Southport and the forests near it. I ended up at the Hastings cave and thermal springs Visitor centre about 08:30 but it wouldn't open until 10 so I decided to make an earlier than planned start towards Bruny Island. 

Driving back up to Huonville, I stopped in at Geeveston for morning tea at a great little bakery, they had some interesting sounding pies (e.g. Scallop pies) but I settled for a boring old sausage roll and that was pretty good. 

At Huonville I took the turnoff to Cygnet and continued around the coast to Kettering. The scenery was very nice with some great little places to camp if I had more time. When I drove into Kettering I went straight to the ferry terminal and just got the ferry that was about to depart to Bruny Island. The trip is not far and only took 20-30 mins, with the crossing being very calm even though the wind was making the water a bit choppy. 

On Bruny Island I headed north to Dennes Point for a look and that part of the island is quite rural with lots of sheep and cattle in evidence and then on the way down south I stopped in at the Bruny Island Cheese shop for a few samples as well as a toasted ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. The coffee milkshake was excellent. There is a long sand dune joining the ends of the island together and at the start is a lookout at the Penguin Rookery. The stairs to the lookout are numerous but the view is pretty incredible.

 I continued on down the west side of the island, finally getting to Cape Bruny and the lighthouse there. The roads were pretty good gravel roads until the start of the national park and then they got pretty rough. The view from the lighthouse was stunning but the wind was almost too strong to walk into, so I didn't stay too long at the top taking photos but headed back to the nice warm car. 

I went and had a look at the camp site at Jetty Bay and decided it would be sheltered enough for me to set up camp, even though it was only 4pm. This gave me some time to relax a bit and also rearrange things in the car as I had been getting a little slack with putting things back in their correct places. I was also able to get this blog written up ready to post tomorrow as there is no phone signal here.