Entries about alonnah

During our visit to Bruny Island, we stayed at the Bruny Backpackers, in Alonnah.
We got to know the owners, Julie and Bernie, and enjoyed their company. We were delighted when Bernie offered to take us out 'for a spin' in his boat.

after helping to load it into the water, we were off around Satellite Island

It is surrounded by an ancient fossil clad rock shelf, home to an array of local shellfish, including crayfish, native scallops, abalone and oysters. The resort on the island have their own salmon and oyster farm, so we thought we'd try a spot of fishing off the boat ...not that we caught anything.

After our short trip, Bernie was kind enough to let us use the kayaks - remnants of his previous paddling company on the island.
Eric hadn't done much paddling before, so we set off for a gentle paddle along the cove


We investigated the nearby reef that was just peeking above the surface

and some of it's inhabitants



Although beautiful, it made for interesting paddling over the top, and through the seaweed

So we stopped for a well-deserved lunch on the beach


After lunch, we got a little too adventurous and decided to follow the headland out. As the wind picked up and the tide was heading out, we found ourselves paddling across the widest part of the bay - it felt like two strokes forward, one back! Even the reef was now much more visible above the water.

But we survived...



After we'd loaded the boats on the car we headed to the shore for a paddle

and came across a pretty impressive looking collection of rocks and sea life.


There were fish, and sea anemones

It turns out, two young boys had built it the day before, and as we stood watching, they were finding nippers to add to the community.

using a suction pipe, they found a hole and 'sucked' the nipper out of the sand. As soon as it was released, it began to bury itself back in to it's new home

After all the excitement out at sea, it was time for a bit of relaxing, trying to fish... again, we caught nothing!

A great day out - with thanks to Bernie and Julie.