An island off an island off an island
Bruny Island is so close to the winding coast of the Huon Valley it is continually hard to figure out where it begins and ends. Its a short ferry ride over and then you step down a notch in pace. It must be the island off an island off an island thing, if Partridge Island, off Bruny Island was inhabited, it would be so chilled out as to be comatose.
Bruny was great, it began beautifully sunny with lots of stunning views from Cape Bruny lighthouse, and a long walk around the Labillardiere peninsula on a day so hot that WE EVEN SWAM IN THE OCEAN (twice!).
As we think we've figured out about Tassie weather, a beautifully hot spell is followed closely by a ferocious change in the weather, and this was a big one. The next day the dark clouds were rolling in, but we perservered with getting the tinnie in the water anyway. And the unsettled weather did something unusual to the teeming multitudes of flathead in the water, and they were almost flinging themselves into the boat. If we didn't get a bite immediately we were thinking something was wrong. We fished for as long as we could but the rain drove us in eventually, with a big haul of flathead. Funny thing though, once they'd been filleted they seemed quite small.
And thus began the three days of literally solid rain, which was a little dispiriting towards the end, despite our couple of explorations in the warmth of Elsie, mainly to escape the soggy campsite. We were camped next to a family from WA who had tried living in Tassie a few years earlier but were driven away by the rain, they said they were so homesick for sunshine they only stayed a year. We could understand this at this point. We were even mentally publishing bumper stickers "Tassie: Great Place, Crap Weather".
And then the rain stopped, the sun came out and we revised our bumper sticker to "Tassie: Fabulous Place, Interesting Weather". And we got to get out of the tent and out of Elsie and back to walking around the beautiful coastline and exploring the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in the tinnie, desperately trying to catch an escaped Atlantic Salmon from the many fish farms in the channel. But ending up with small sharks, 'couta, AUSTRALIAN salmon and more of the ubiquitous flathead.
Bruny was great, it began beautifully sunny with lots of stunning views from Cape Bruny lighthouse, and a long walk around the Labillardiere peninsula on a day so hot that WE EVEN SWAM IN THE OCEAN (twice!).
As we think we've figured out about Tassie weather, a beautifully hot spell is followed closely by a ferocious change in the weather, and this was a big one. The next day the dark clouds were rolling in, but we perservered with getting the tinnie in the water anyway. And the unsettled weather did something unusual to the teeming multitudes of flathead in the water, and they were almost flinging themselves into the boat. If we didn't get a bite immediately we were thinking something was wrong. We fished for as long as we could but the rain drove us in eventually, with a big haul of flathead. Funny thing though, once they'd been filleted they seemed quite small.
And thus began the three days of literally solid rain, which was a little dispiriting towards the end, despite our couple of explorations in the warmth of Elsie, mainly to escape the soggy campsite. We were camped next to a family from WA who had tried living in Tassie a few years earlier but were driven away by the rain, they said they were so homesick for sunshine they only stayed a year. We could understand this at this point. We were even mentally publishing bumper stickers "Tassie: Great Place, Crap Weather".
And then the rain stopped, the sun came out and we revised our bumper sticker to "Tassie: Fabulous Place, Interesting Weather". And we got to get out of the tent and out of Elsie and back to walking around the beautiful coastline and exploring the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in the tinnie, desperately trying to catch an escaped Atlantic Salmon from the many fish farms in the channel. But ending up with small sharks, 'couta, AUSTRALIAN salmon and more of the ubiquitous flathead.
posted by Tim and Nic at
9:44 am
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