3 Days on the Island - 1

We came back today from a short, wet holiday on Bruny Island. We were supposed to stay an extra day but since home was just an hour's drive plus a ferry ride away, we gave in to frustration and came home. Plus we missed the dog. Elf teed up our accommodation through a workmate, Lorraine, who lives over there. A friend of hers has a small place at Alonnah, on South Bruny.

Wednesday. Elf and the boys picked me up at work in the afternoon. Winston had been dropped off with his buddy Mochi for a dog holiday. The wave ski was strapped to the car (where it would stay until we got home). We drove down to Kettering to the car ferry, about 40 minutes. (It's ridiculous how close to home Bruny is, and I have only been there twice in my life). The ferry has had a little trouble lately with the small engine that manoeuvers it into the jetty - so it is currently followed back and forth by its li'l buddy the tugboat, who does the nudging.

The ferry takes only about 15 minutes. We drove off it, onto the north end of the island and headed down the only significant road, to Alonnah. We stopped at the lookout on the isthmus that joins North Bruny to South Bruny, but the weather turned us back when we were halfway up the steep steps. Oh well, the joy of being on an isthmus outweighs the sadness of not seeing the view. All our isthmuses had come at once - chortle.

The view we didn't see. D'Entrecasteaux Channel on the right, Tasman Sea on the left.

Alonnah is a very small town but it has a school, PO, pub, online access centre and tiny shop. It is proud of being the "administrative centre" of the island. Our place was about 3 minutes drive from the action - a small concrete block 4-room shack, with a ferny swampy creek running behind it down to the beach. As soon as we arrived the boys dived into the ferny swamp and we didn't really see them until we called them out of the darkness for dinner. Evening: drawing and dominos by the fire.