Tuesday, February 23 - Mt Wellington and Briny Island

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the temperature was comfortable so we set off for a short drive up to the top of Mt Wellington which provides a 1,269 m back support to the city of Hobart.

Beautiful, beautiful climb up the mountain: switch back bends, narrow roads with soft uneven shoulders, and steep drop offs on one or both sides. Got the picture? Nerve biting drive!! The view from the top was a little hazy but still very lovely looking over the city and the Derwent Estuary.

The sad part was we weren’t equipped to do one of the hikes that were signposted.

In the afternoon we took a drive down the Huon Trail to Kettering, a lovely little town on the Huron D’Entrecasteaux Channel where we caught a 20 minute ferry over to Bruny Island. There wasn’t much on the island, some houses, numerous campsites, B&;Bs, hotels, restaurants, etc. The island was quite beautiful and not over commercialized and we stopped a few times to do short walks to see the views, or some historical plaque. Captain Cook apparently landed at one point on his first voyage and of course there is a plaque commemorating that. It was all very lovely, beautiful deserted beaches, neat little coves, undulating landscape. A nice tranquil get away from Hobart…..not that the city is that big – just over 200,000 I think.

We were back around 6:00 and stopped to buy groceries for dinner and came back to the apartment for the evening. Phew, we needed downtime and some home cooked food. That is the worst part of travelling. Trying to find half decent food to eat, so when we have the opportunity we buy lunches and cook dinners.

We leave here tomorrow. Our itinery is very vague, but I think we are headed up to Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay.