Self Guided Bruny Island Walk

TRANSFERS: Morning flight from Hobart to Bruny Island. Drive yourself to Kettering to catch the ferry to Bruny Island.

WALK GRADE: 4.2km return trip.  Easy to follow track up Mount Mangana. 2.5 – 3 hours walking, with breaks. Easy-grade.

TERRAIN: Large roots and stones, like any good bushwalk, but not difficult or technical.  A climb (and later, descent) of 121 metres.  Basic fitness required.

WALK ITINERARY: Make your way to Bruny Island by your own car and drive to the start of your walk. Your walk begins as high as a car can get atop the highest mountain of Bruny Island.  As soon as you enter the trail, even on a sunny day, you will know you have entered into a magical pocket of rainforest, as the sunlight falls away and dapples across the thick forest floor.  A steady,  but relatively gentle climb takes you through slowly up to the peak of Mount Mangana.  As you go you will pass by many endemic Tasmanian temperate rainforest species that are seldom found anywhere but the wet and rugged West Coast.  But here, where rainfall tops one metre a year and cloud cover allows a temperate rainforest micro-climate, you will find them. To see leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida) or celery to pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius) growing on the East Coast is something special.  And that is exactly what this walk is: something special. Upon your return to the trailhead and drive to your accommodation.

TRANSFERS:  After breakfast, drive yourself south 35 minutes to the start of this walk.

WALK GRADE: 18.3km circuit.  Decent-to-good fitness required.  5.5 – 7 hours with breaks.

TERRAIN: Technically easy trail, but can be long and arduous for some.  One hill of just over 100 metres.  Last half is slightly more technical than first half, but still not that tricky.

ITINERARY:  After breakfast, drive yourself to the start of the walk. The Labillardiere Peninsula was named after the first person to produce a book on the plants of Australia.  He was a lover of flowers, and flowers is what you will get on this walk.  Beginning strolling along the north-western edge of the peninsula, you will amble through fields of blossoming coastal heath, with wildflowers of every colour on display for most of the year.  After descending the only major hill of just over 100 metres, you arrive on a secluded little beach, perfect for lunch, or a private little swim. As you head down the eastern edge of the peninsula, the habitat will be overtly different from that which you passed in the morning, with the coastal heath being dwarfed by a forest of eucalypts, she-oaks, native cherries and dozens of other woodland species. Upon completion of the circuit, drive back to your accommodation. Tonight enjoyed a relaxed restaurant dinner.

TRANSFERS:  Drive yourself to the start of the walk

WALK GRADE: Approximately 6kms. 3.5 hours walking with breaks. Medium grade. Ascent/descent: 270m/270m

TERRAIN: The track to Green Point has a hardened or compacted surface with gentle hills and occasional steps. There are occasional boulder-strewn sections. The track onwards to Fluted Cape is a natural trail, with uneven surfaces and rocks and a steep ascent and descent.

ITINERARY: After breakfast, drive yourself to the start of your walk near Adventure Bay.  Drifting through different eucalypt habitats and she-oak forests, you will arrive at Grass Point and the ruins of an old whaling station.  Just across the way is Penguin Island accessible at low tide and fun to get to via hopping from rock to rock. Climbing up Fluted Cape proper, you are presented with lookout after lookout, as you get higher and higher, the sheer cliffs just metres from your feet both daunting and amazing. When you do arrive at the top, the views north, up the East Coast, are jaw-dropping.  Standing 272 metres above the sea, you are only 30 metres shy of the highest vertical sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere – which you can see from here, up the coast, on the Tasman Peninsula. Cutting back inland through the woodlands, the descent is smooth and easy, bringing you back to East Cove, where you can walk straight into the Bruny Island Cruises’ Seafood Restaurant for lunch.  After lunch, drive yourself to the ferry and then back to Hobart.