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A DAY IN HOBART, TASMANIA & A NIGHT WITH THE FAIRY PENGUINS AT BRUNY ISLAND Saturday
Hobart is a pretty city and much more laid back..... conservative and non-assuming. It's so quaint, which is pretty much true of old Harbor towns. There are several wooden ships parked in the Harbor dating to the 1800's. It's always interesting for Rusty to check out the MV's (marine vessels). Rus was just mesmerized by the Devil Cat which is in the Harbor now. It will be making the run from Melbourne. _____________ Jane left this blank for me to fill in info about the Devil Cat. I think I was right on the edge with Jane trying to get a look at the boat. The boat was built here in Hobart. It is 96 meters long and cruises over 50 knots! It has 4 jet pumps and is powered by turbine engines that produce 40,000 horsepower. It can carry 900 people and 250 cars. Total cargo capacity is 800 tonnies. It is painted black with Tasmanian Devil markings. Wicked looking.
As the day evolved, we realized we would just not be content if we did not return to Bruny Island to see the Fairy Penguins! We stopped at the Visitor Information Center in town on our explorations and got information about hiring (renting) a car and getting the ferry schedules. We decided to take the last ferry over to Bruny Island which was 6:30 p.m. The car rental man came to pick us up and took us into the office for us to do the paperwork. This was a highly orchestrated plan. We could only have the car for 24 hours or less. Our plan was to take the first ferry off the island at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow and drive back through Hobart and out the other side to Maria Island to catch the first ferry over there at 10:30 a.m. where we want to spend tomorrow. If we miss that ferry the next ferry wouldn't be till 1:00 p.m. and not so worth taking. We would take the 4:00 p.m. ferry off (last one), drive back to Hobart and get the car turned in. No room for errors here!! We made this first ferry in the link!! We hung out on the beach waiting for dark. We had the beach to ourselves for hours. We had explored the cliffs before the penguins came up. Coming in the first thing we had found was a huge black snake. We only saw a part of it. When we startled it, it fully slithered into one of the penguin nests. Yuck!! We looked at shells on the beach and checked out where most of the penguin tracks were. We just laid out on the wooden stairwell and chilled. Once it looked like dark...... it was another two hours before it was!! Fooled us.... was really close to 9:30 before it was dark enough for them. A few other folks had joined us by this time.... I think there were a total of ten of us there. We realized then how late it would be when we got through and we hadn't gone by the hostel first!!..Maybe we'd be sleeping on the beach! This place has FEW accommodations - all of which are at someone's house or such. Rusty had his night scope and that really helped spot the penguins coming in. It finally was just too dark to see far. They seemed to come up in little groups and most came up the same path in the area where we were..... they just scrambled up and all over that hill. All those holes even down the other side and into the parking lot had residents! I was surprised how small they were. They were no bigger than a small duck --- maybe similar in size to a two liter coke bottle it that helps.... not quite that tall. I could talk for hours about the evening. It was so fascinating!! The Short-tailed Shearwaters came in right at dark also and they were nested throughout the area as well. They get their name from their graceful shearing flight moving from centimeters above the water's surface to high in the sky. Some of the folks were calling them "Muttonbirds". An officer in the Royal Marines called them 'the flying sheep' so this nickname has been applied to them since. We probably went nuts trying to take pictures of the penguins! It was like "shooting in the dark" - but we had to try. The cam-corder wouldn't pick up anything but the sound! We were the last to leave the beach!! We headed down the island to find the hostel not really expecting much since it was 10:30pm! We saw one house that still had lights on. We found the one pay phone near the teahouse we'd had lunch in the other day and called. Our luck was with us! - it was the house with the light on!! Boy, did that suit me!! There was only one young gal there in the area we stayed. We had seen her on the ferry the first time we came over. We hit the hay about 11:00 p.m. and had the clock set for 6:00 a.m. Sleep would be good. This experience was a highlight for us!
Hobart Bridge
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