Arrival to Australia - and if that's not remote enough, our arrival on Tasmania, and if that's still not remote enough, the excursion to Bruny Island

We had an action-packed morning upon our arrival into Australia. We booked an aggressive (overly aggressive) connection between landing in Sydney and making a connection flight to Hobart, Tasmania. But we made it!

After some down time on Friday night, we took our first adventure early on Saturday morning with a drive, ferry, and cruise around Bruny Island. Earlier in the year we had our adventures to Antarctica and Patagonia - and going to Bruny Island is the perfect transition from those places to Australia.

Why? Because Bruny Island is a very small island of the coast of Tasmania that borders the Tasman Sea to the east the Southern Ocean to the south. There is nothing between Bruny Island and Antarctica, so we looked forward to visiting our friend, the Southern Ocean.

Bruny has both a north and southern parts separated by "the neck" separating Adventure Bay to the left and Simpsons Bay to the right (below).

The view heading south to our cruise in Adventure Bay and beyond on Bruny Island.

The scenery was incredible as we navigated south from Hobart through Bruny. The air was incredibly clean and clear; we were acclimating to the eucalypt in the air and the height of the gum trees. We explored the first of many beaches we would encounter in Australia - but no - we missed the Tiny penguins (yes there is such a species that resides in Tasmania). The beaches are much too crowded and there aren't many tiny penguins left, so no colony footage like we had in Antarctica.

In the late morning, we boarded our vessel, set out of Adventure Bay and rounded the coast out of the inner coves.

All ready to see some awesome scenery, see some seals, and meet Tasmania! Complete with Steelers shirt, though I would rethink the baseball cap later.

Okay, now we're ready to go. Always have to have the Pittsburgh Steelers shirt and accompanying Penguins tossle cap.

Once clear of the coves we came into contact with a very turbulent bay which made for a wild ride around the southern tip of the island. Below is a clip as we rounded the cliffs and got acquainted with the rough sea. There could not be a better welcome to Australia than the ship pilot's raspy speech describing our surroundings.

Here's the introduction from our Tassie pilot as we disembark on our journey of the rocky Bruny coastline. The sea swells in Adventure Bay and on the Southern Ocean were rockin' this day and we were in for a wild ride

Bruny was an awesome first stop and bridge from our Patagonia adventure. Gum trees aside, the look of the cliffs and the island very much resembled Patagonia. This makes total sense because Tasmania was the last piece of Australia to break off of the ancient southern continent of Gondwana (included South America, Antarctica, Africa, India, and Australia). So many similarities between Patagonia and Tasmania geologically. (If ever interested in more read Peter Matthiessen's "Ends of the Earth" - he voyages to Antarctica twice - once from Patagonia and again from Tasmania... as if we needed any other ideas)

I digress - back to our adventure at Bruny Island. And it was an adventure - check out some more video of us navigating the cliffs in the swelling sea.

A little more of our ride near the southern cliffs

The photos below reflect elements that we saw during this cruise. The frequent sprays and blowholes of the surf hitting against the cliffs, the intertwining of the small ships along the rough seas, and a few close ups of the Fur seals that we visited on the cruise.

The cruise was high speed and choppy to say the least, so happy we loaded up on ginger before we hit the water. One last video of us racing along the cliff coastline.

What a start to the Australian voyage! After the three-hour cruise we got back to the base for some lunch - and to cap off our first adventure we happened up on the first wallaby during our trip! The excursion to Bruny island was a perfect first step.

Wallaby siting number one

A great start and so much more to come from Tasmania, let alone Australia!