Bruny Island

[ben.h]

Bargain.
Bruny Island ferry is only $3pp return on a bike!
http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/bruny_island_ferry

Great place to ride, bushwalk and camp (although I haven't been down there in years). South of the neck are a few mountainous regions and a number of great walks can be had north and south of the neck. I've camped at Adventure Bay, Alonnah and Great Taylors Bay in South Bruny National Park (the camping ground is called "Labillardiere" for memory, after the cape it's situated on). There's a loop walk from this camping ground that takes the walker right around the southern cape, past Partridge Island and along some great beaches. It took me 6 hours to complete the loop although I'd suggest taking things easy and enjoying lunch, the beaches, etc. and allow 7+ hours.

David Leaman Lists four 5hr+ walks on Bruny in "Walk into History in Southern Tasmania" and there is also a Tasmap 1:20000 especially made for walking on Bruny which includes track notes.
http://www.map-centre.com.au/nat_park.htm#brunyisland

Surprisingly, Tyrone Thomas lists no walks on Bruny in his 120 book.

I've also visited the Cape Bruny Lighthouse and it's well worth a look (if you're into that sort of thing):
http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/TAS ... 0Bruny.htm

I plan on riding my mountain bike down there again soon to visit Moorina Bay Hut (I've got a bit of a thing for huts at the moment!):
http://www.kosciuskohuts.org.au/Hut%20P ... oorina.htm

A rugged island and although it doesn't feature the colonial history of Maria Island it's still an awesome place to visit. It does have a permanent population but outside of the few towns and populated bays, it's a very quiet and peaceful place to visit (especially the far south).

[kramster]

I plan on riding my mountain bike down there again soon to visit Moorina Bay Hut (I've got a bit of a thing for huts at the moment!):
http://www.kosciuskohuts.org.au/Hut%20P ... oorina.htm

I'd be interested in what the hut is like at Moorina Bay
The following links might help find it...
Google-Map
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&q=moorina+Bay,+Bruny+Island,+Tasmania&ll=-43.241326,147.408457&spn=0.043955,0.079823&t=h&z=14
Cape Queen Elizabeth Walk
http://www.brunyisland.net.au/Walks/capeqewalk.html

There is also a free camping ground on the Neck (southern end, if I remember rightly), with some basic facilities

[tasadam]

I have camped at South Bruny National Park before, at the end of Old Jetty Road.
Nice beach, quiet place.

Spent another night camping either at Kilora or likely Dennes Point, too long ago to remember.

[ben.h]

I plan on riding my mountain bike down there again soon to visit Moorina Bay Hut (I've got a bit of a thing for huts at the moment!):
http://www.kosciuskohuts.org.au/Hut%20P ... oorina.htm

I'd be interested in what the hut is like at Moorina Bay
The following links might help find it...
Google-Map
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&q=moorina+Bay,+Bruny+Island,+Tasmania&ll=-43.241326,147.408457&spn=0.043955,0.079823&t=h&z=14
Cape Queen Elizabeth Walk
http://www.brunyisland.net.au/Walks/capeqewalk.html

There is also a free camping ground on the Neck (southern end, if I remember rightly), with some basic facilities

Ok, I finally got around to visiting Moorina Bay hut today (123km round trip on the mtb and a bit of a bush/beach walk/scramble!)

The Cape Queen Elizabeth walk is a short 3hr walk according to the sign (I rode most of it so I couldn't say how accurate that is), on which Moorina Bay and Moorina Hut are located. The walk starts from Great Bay just before the northern part of the neck so keep a lookout for the sign on the eastern side of the main road.

n562932293_1094633_4020.jpg (90.23 KiB) Viewed 7871 times

[geoskid]

Bruny Island - The Slide Track. here
Our family had 10 days on Bruny in Jan '09, based at Adventure Bay Caravan Park, and pretty well drove all around the Island and did a lot of the Day walks. As you would expect the coastal walking was spectacular, however one of the most interesting/adventurous walks was The Slide Track, which did'nt appear to get a lot of use going by how overgrown the vegetation was. Perhaps this is because a car shuffle is suggested to avoid a road slog back to the start.
When I mentioned to the Caravan Park lady that we were going to walk the track this particular day she tried to dissuade us and mentioned all the snakes (they no longer display the brochure in the office), and asked us to let her know when we arrived back.
Fair Dinkum, she was right. My wife dropped myself and oldest son off at the start and in the 4hrs it took to walk back to Adventure Bay we saw 10 nice fat snakes(two pairs) on the track and several 'rustles' in the vegetation beside the track.
By the time we got back I was fair twitching, and my son was no longer the front runner he normally is on walks.
We thoroughly enjoyed locating the points of interest along the way, particularly the slide section, and could picture the track in it's heyday.
Anyway, if your ever over there and are in two minds whether to walk this track, I'd recommend you do - and then do a nice calming beach walk - worked for me
Geoskid

[ILUVSWTAS]

Ah the cardboard goblet!! what a fantasitc hut that is! brings back nice memories!!
Nice place to stay (watch the ants in sunmer tho) and Excellent diving along the wall up to the left!!

thanks ben for reminding me!!!!

[stepbystep]

Did the slide track a month ago, was overgrown but no slippery friends.....lots of slippery mud
Moorina Bay is a great place to camp, the dawn wildlife on the beach is amazing, I saw a mob of 11 wallabies and there were so many prints of other critters in the dunes.
Great spot....never saw the hut though

[Orion]

Is the Cheesery worth a visit?

[stepbystep]

Is the Cheesery worth a visit?

Given they just had all their soft cheeses recalled, I'd be a touch hesitant. They are never open anyway.
Plenty of mussells and oysters though

[ILUVSWTAS]

I work on Bruny. (not at the cheesery)
the cheesery on recalled one type of cheese and that was self recalled, they before that had a perfect record so I think it's a credit to them!

[stepbystep]

I work on Bruny. (not at the cheesery)
the cheesery on recalled one type of cheese and that was self recalled, they before that had a perfect record so I think it's a credit to them!

Half your luck, what a place to work....
Yeah that's right, I think they had a problem with 1 soft cheese and pulled them all, we were pretty sad about that.
Especially when you have a look at all the multi-national owned 'Aussie brands' within the dairy industry.
The Bruny Island Saint cheese, battered and then deep fried and served with strawberries......heaven.
Hope they get their act together soon. ...and open their doors to tourists.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Spot on mate! It was a commendable move by them I reakon!
Yeh it's a tough place to have to go to work..NOT only do a couple of days a week but I do LOVE it,

[Orion]

Oh, I see.... Listeria. That can't be good for business!

We really enjoyed their cheeses when we visited Tasmania.

[GK_TAS]

Planning a sea kayak trip around Nth Bruny. Interested if anyone had any info about the best places to camp at Moorina Bay (a GR if possible)

[tas-man]

Did the slide track a month ago (Aug 2009), was overgrown but no slippery friends.....lots of slippery mud

There was an LWC trip to Bruny on the Queen's Birthday long weekend and they did the slide track one day, and reported an incredible number of leeches. They averaged around thirty leeches each for the trip, and had leeches in ears and many other awkward places. One chap's shirt looked like he had been hit by shotgun pellets from all the blood stains. Those Bruny leeches must have been VERY hungry for a feed!