A short hop from Melbourne with the flight just over one hour. I landed in and could immediately feel the reduction in temperature here. Today is a down day for me so I took a nap and then decided to walk down to the harbour area which was lovely.

What to do tomorrow? That is the question …… I decided with my navigational skills being what they are to book a tour, there were a lot of different options so I went for the One Day Trip to Bruny Island with Bruny Island Sea Cruises leaving at 7.45am from the office on the pier, so easy to get to.

NB they ask if you have back or neck issues so Cruise is maybe a bit misleading lol 😉

Skip past this nerdy bit about this company I just love someone doing well from nothing just having seized an opportunity: The Company was set up by Robert Pennicott 24 years ago in 1999, he was a fisherman who lived on Bruny Island and was being asked by tourists if he would take them out round the island on his boat. Wowzer! that took off! He now owns Pennicott Wilderness Journeys of which the Bruny Island Sea Cruises are a part of and many more (worth a google). He is now named as an Australian Tourist Legend! Lots of awards! All I know is that I fell on my feet with this one, I just wandered in off the pier.

Today, as if you all don’t know is my gorgeous grandson Caleb’s first birthday and bad Nana is on the other side of the world, sorry baba, well it’s your birthday so I am going to treat myself! Party for One lol 🙂 I was recommended to go to Mures on the Pier and it did not disappoint. It reminded me of Rick Stein’s in Padstow the only difference being everything was in one building. An amazing fish counter if you wanted to buy some, the lower deck restaurant for anyone wanting to eat relatively affordably (watch out for the seagulls!)

I decided on the Upper Deck, well it is a celebration and got a beautiful table at the window over-looking the harbour.

Starter, I decided on the Semolina crispy fried Squid, black garlic aioli, cucumber, mint, palm sugar and lime dressing and for mains a Tasmanian Seafood Laksa including scallops, premium white fish, salmon, squid, spiced coconut soup & noodles, which I can honestly say I could have drowned myself in, it was sooooo good.

The Day Trip:

Meeting at 7.30 am for a 7.45 am briefing and off we went in a very nice small coach with Josh the Tour guide, lovely lad who drove and talked us through the journey, we wound our way out of Hobart and stopped at “The Neck” this is a sandy strip of land that separates the North and South of this Island and yes I am rolling my eyes at the irony that they disagree over who makes the best beer lol!

We were introduced to Truganini for the first time (not the last) today, a trailblazing Indigenous woman who fought for the rights of her people despite many personal losses and hardships. She was the daughter of a famous elder, Manganerer, one of the local mountains is named after him!

Anyway actually quite incredible what she did in her life and even her post death story is quite something, long story short, she died at the age of 64 in 1835 and wanted cremated in her homeland nope, they buried her on the mainland then scientists exhumed her and displayed her skeleton in a museum. Finally, it was agreed that she would be cremated and brought home to Bruny Island 100 years later as she had wanted.

Details in the below pic just might be hard to see.

Another fun fact the Indigenous name for Bruny is Lumawanna Allonah – meaning beautiful island and it is.

I love this………….

Thank goodness I bought a fleece before boarding the boat I would have been foundered without it despite the full length splash coat…..getting the picture folks!

All I am going to say is this was great experience from the dolomite sea cliffs, Jurassic, Triassic (that’s circa 201-252 million years ago) coastline to the sea lions, pelicans and dolphins just gorgeous.

You definitely want to be a male sea lion the key aim is to be the biggest and fattest and you only have to mate one season a year with any Sea(Lady)Lion you want, the bigger you are the more chance you have!

Sea(Lady)Lion’s for their whole life are pregnant for all but 23 days a year, when they are instantly back in season, Seriously!

Lunch was included in this trip and again all locally sourced and really good.

If you are ever coming to Tasi -Definitely look this company up I highly recommend them.

Back to the hotel – up early for my tour to Tasi tomorrow – update in 6 days time 🙂