Bruny Island was cold, which isn't a surprise as I was in Tasmania in the winter. I was as I discovered while I was there, unprepared for how cold it was going to be.
First I had to get to Kettering, where the ferry leaves from.
On the way from Franklin I stopped off at Eggs and Bacon Bay, just because it's got a silly name and I wanted to go and have a look.
The road in is very long and sweeping. It seems like so many roads in Tasmania are excellent drivers' roads.
There's no convenient sign to take a photo in front of and say that I've visited Eggs and Bacon Bay. Or at least not that I saw.
It's a sleepy beachside town, with not a lot in it.
The cove where I took some photos was very windy.
The process for buying a ticket and boarding the ferry to Bruny Island was very simple.
As you drive towards the ferry on Ferry Road in Kettering, you get in the left lane and then stop at a ticket box.
It's $38 dollars return, once you're past the ticket box no one looks at your ticket, I guess as there's no other way onto Bruny Island there's no reason to check your ticket.
Boarding the ferry is as simple as driving on, following the instructions on where to park.
The crossing takes about 20 minutes. You can get out of your car and walk around, take photos and do whatever if you wish.
Half way across water and waves splashed across half the cars on the ferry, so I was glad to not be standing outside. Very few people actually got out and walked around anyways.
First thing I noticed about Bruny Island was that despite all the recent rain, how dry it was looking.
Second thing I noticed was how untouched Bruny Island looks, much like a lot of the smaller towns I'd been to, but to a much more extreme extent that it still looks colonial era in its appearance. Undeveloped.
I stopped off at the Bruny Island Cheese and Beer Co to buy some cheese. The last time I was in Tasmania I'd bought and quite enjoyed their cheese (at Salamanca Market), so thought I'd visit while I was on the island.
I also had a croque monsieur for lunch.
And I got another of the weird pitying smiles from them when I asked what non-alcoholic options they had.
I really don't get why though, I walked in on my own, their business is in the middle of no where and it was lunch time, was I expected to order a large beer?
It was also freezing inside their shop, and they had all the doors and open, despite the wind.
Maybe I'm just a dirty mainlander who didn't get the Tasmanian weather, but the staff were all wearing thick insulated shirts / jackets.
I thought maybe they could've closed one of the doors out onto the covered deck, or had more of a roaring fire in their wood burner.
When I commented that I'd chosen to sit at a dirty uncleared away table inside because it was freezing outside one of the waitstaff just laughed and said 'good Tasmanian winter's day'.
I didn't really have many plans beyond this, I had maybe thought about visiting the Bruny Island Lighthouse, but the temperature was falling and the ‘feels like temperature’ for the lighthouse was dropping down to fractions below 1.0º, so I made the decision to cut my day short and head to my accommodation.
The accommodation I'd booked for my single night's stay on Bruny Island was a revelation.
The host messaged me saying that I could arrive at 1:00 pm rather than the 2:00 pm check in, and that they had the fire going for me. I arrived to a really warm beach house, perfectly renovated, in a really tasteful Airbnb-friendly sort of way. And despite it being in a colder part of Tasmania, much more exposed, this beach house was so warm and welcoming (which I didn't find at the Whispering Ponies).
I sat for a few hours just looking out at the view across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel (the channel of water between Bruny Island and Tasmania). It was a really breathtaking view and it's something I could have sat and looked at for a long time.
My dining companion - the ugly lamp
For dinner I made my way to Hotel Bruny.
I had fried squid as an entree and slow cooked lamb in a larger sauce. Or at least that's what it was listed as on the menu. It was more of a gloopy brown sauce, with some crunchy slithers of carrot, broccolini and beans.
I was actually really glad to return to my accommodation. Of all the places I stayed in Tasmania this was the only place that felt warm, but not just that, cosy, friendly and it was a nice place to be.
Only indication left of the age of the house, the rest has been perfectly renovated.
I'd happily return and stay at the 'Secret Spot', it was the perfect cosy place to stay.
Interesting thing on the return journey the following day on the ferry, it's not bi-directional. It is drive on and drive off, but on the return journey you're going 'backwards' relative to how your cars are positioning. When it gets back to Kettering the ferry turns around to allow you to drive off.
