We were chilled when we stepped back onto the jetty and headed for the Cruise reception centre and restaurant.  Our colourful pots of tea were delivered to us on the open deck as we sat absorbing the strokes of the sun. 

Jeanette returned to the car and grabbed our pre-prepared lunch and, with the glorious spread of Adventure Bay before us, sat and munched happily as we debriefed from our experience out on the water.

We had no plans except to give me a taste of Bruny.  We decided by the end of the day to have driven to the Bruny lighthouse but first we chose to take the short easy return walk to Penguin Island. This walk is listed as the Grass Point walk –  1 hour return. Grass Point is an open grassland where there are visible remains of structures associated with the bay whaling industry.  Along the way information boards tell some of the whaling history and nearby, the foundation remnants of a Whaling Station cottage can be walked through.

All the following photos in this blog post were taken by Jeanette.  You can see the track was clear. Walking along these pathways, shaded loosely by the dappling of casuarina and eucalypt trees, was comfortable and incredibly pleasant.

Through the trees we could see the waters of Adventure Bay glistening in the afternoon sun.

Comprised of rounded rocks from the pebbly water’s edge, creative cairns rose from the shore in a number of places. I felt there was a distinctive oriental quality in the placement of the rocks and the shape of the overall cairns.  Delightful.The tide was on the way in and the low rock bed separating Penguin Island from mainland Bruny was already covered. I sat on a fat rock at the water’s edge and finished my lunch all the while remembering the sea cruise and mulling over the nature of natural and social history in relation to Bruny Island.  The wash of the waves crossing the ‘bar’ was hypnotic and I could easily have stayed for hours.  Already after 3pm, we realised we must retrace our steps and go to the lighthouse area, about an hour’s drive away on Cape Bruny –the access gates are shut at 5pm so we needed to get moving.

We walked back taking a slightly different route; I am so pleased we did so because dozens of wallabies and the occasional famed white wallaby were feasting in the paddocks. The white animals are Bennett’s wallabies with a rare genetic mutation giving them the white fur.