Goodbye Bruny

We were both awake at 4 a.m. (3 in Brisbane) and still awake over an hour later. It was such a beautiful morning that we left at 6.20 so that we could stop, bird and photograph en route. At The Neck - the isthmus between north and south Bruny - a few effortlessly elegant Black Swans looked for breakfast.



Kelp Gulls just sat there....

The biggest surprise was a trip bird, a carrot beaked Caspian Tern cruising by at some distance.

Almost at the ferry, a calling bird attracted our attention. A male Yellow Wattlebird, which had given us the run around, deep in the shade of a roadside tree.

Further on a raptor is still causing us ID problems. Watch this space. It's a Brown Falcon

We were second in the ferry queue this time and the ferry was 10 minutes late coming in. Most people were walking to the small shack to buy snacks for breakfast.

We'd got plenty of time before we were needed at the airport. I mooted going to a park I'd seen signposted somewhere near Hobart. When we saw Inverawe Native Gardens off the road at Margate, no contest, in we went. A fantastic 22 hectares of land along the shore, reclaimed from bramble and hawthorn by two retired Sydney teachers. They'd done a great job but we hadn't the time nor the energy to do it justice. Little Wattlebirds were a raucous addition to the trip list.
We wandered about admiring the plants, had a drink and some hot buttered raisin toast and drove through Hobart to the airport.

Hobart sprawls around a huge indented inlet, most of the houses climb the mountainside making for a most attractive city in the warm sunlight.
Virgin Blue was late.....but we landed in Brisbane on time. A phone call to Abel Cars, 10 minutes later we were picked up, documentation completed and driving away to brave the Brisbane traffic. We made one small detour but got home very quickly - must have been a good shortcut!!
We loved Bruny, Inala and the limited amount of Tasmania that we saw.I don't suppose we'll ever visit again, too many other places await.