Island Adventure

Already two weeks have passed and we have settled very quickly into our 'temporary' home here in Gordon.

The weather has been quite kind to us considering it is winter, at least until yesterday when we experienced almost cyclonic winds.  We had three very, very frosty mornings in the first week and 19mm of rain the second  night here.  Admittedly there have been some 'cool' days and we have taken full advantage of the wood fire in the lounge.

The garden is divine with our own stream and waterfall running along the boundary of the property.   We even have a 'fairy house' under one of the trees.  Jonquils are already in flower and there are hundreds of bulbs starting to show their green leaves.  Many of the rose bushes are still in flower.  We are regularly visited by green rosellas, honeyeaters, and scarlet red robins. 

There are vegetables and herbs in the garden and we have enjoyed delicious hot soups and fruit desserts from the garden produce - potato and leek soup; pumpkin and fig soup; rhubarb and apple crumble; rhubarb and fig creamed rice; citrus syrup tea-cake (with custard of course), and some delicious home-made lemon curd.

The OGO has spent a few hours on the ride-on and this month we have about 200 rose bushes to prune. He is, of course, in his element with the number of birds around the area and has a multitude of photos already.Life has not been all about the garden though.

Last week we took the ferry across to Bruny Island for the day.  What a lovely place to visit.  Once on the island (15 minutes on the car ferry), we travelled the main road to Adventure Bay where we planned to walk one of the tracks. 

Track to Beach

Along the way we stopped at the lookout at the isthmus between the north and south islands. I took one look at the number of steps to the lookout and promptly elected to take the steps down to the beach! We spent a lovely 45 minutes on the beach and never did make it to the lookout.

Adventure Bay

At Adventure Bay we walked the track to Grass Point where we spied scarlet robins, firetail finches, Pacific gulls, yellow chinned honeyeaters, and pied oystercatchers.  We also spotted a very large school of fish in the bay and found a beautiful underwater garden.

Before leaving Adventure Bay we were delighted to spot a small group of wallabies and pademelons in a small cleared area amongst the trees.  Even more delighted to find a couple of 'white, albino' wallabies - photos to prove it!!!! these are the most beautiful dazzling white creatures we have ever seen.

Monday must have been our special day.  Not only did we JUST make the 9.30am ferry (they actually waited for us as we approached the pay booth), we saw the rare white wallaby, AND...... we spotted a whale in the Channel.  Yep, we sure did.  

We left Adventure Bay on the eastern side of South Bruny and drove across to Alonnah on the western (or Channel) side to have lunch at the Bruny Hotel.  Sitting at a table by the window, enjoying the afternoon sun, we spotted what we at first thought was a couple of dolphins.  The OGO thought it too large for dolphins and then Mrs OGO noticed a water spout, announced there was a whale in the Channel, and cleared the pub!. 

The publican said whales in the Channel these days is quite an uncommon sight.  Many years ago there were so many whales in the Channel they used to keep people living in this area awake at night with the sounds they make but not so these days. 

So what a fabulous day we had for our first adventure on the Apple Isle. I hope there will be more 'special days' to share with you over the next four weeks.