One Year On....

It's hard to believe that Mr B and I have been married for one whole year!  So much has happened in the last twelve months that in one way the wedding seems like a lifetime ago, but in another way, it seems like only yesterday.  And I will be honest, I did spend the whole weekend while we were away going '....this time last year we were just having the ceremony run through....this time last year we were just making the wedding cake.....this time last year I was just leaving the hairdresser....' and so it went on. I'm sure Mr B got quite over it by the end of the trip, but I do like to reminisce!

Our trip started on Friday and it turned out to be one of the hottest days on record for our state. Some terrible bush fires took hold during the day and several of these are still going. None of the areas we travelled to were effected so we were very lucky, but the fires were never far from our mind the whole time. 

After stopping at Kingston and stocking up on the essentials (water, alcohol, bread, sausages, bacon and eggs....) we set off for our destination - Southport. Southport is the southern most town in Tassie and also home to the Ida Bay Railway which has been on our list of things to do for quite some time. 

Unfortunately when we arrived at the caravan park, it was so damn hot the only thing we could really do was set up camp and seek shade.  This was our home away from home! It was actually quite cosy and comfy! 

And this was where we slept - in the back of the ute! Box of shapes and carton of eggs are not essential camping sleeping equipment, but I highly recommend the box of Shapes....

When the weather cooled off abit, we walked down to the nearby beach and Mr B went for a bit of a dip to cool off. 

That night Mr B cooked up a stella BBQ of Lemon and Dill Ocean Trout Sausages and eggs....I think pretty much every meal we ate for the first 3 days involved a BBQ, bread and bacon and at some point in the midst of a BBQ / bacon fuelled haze I believe I declared that in future if a meal could not be cooked on a BBQ, it would not be welcome in our home.....

It's very civilised eating dinner outside, reading a magazine until it's dark and then crawling into the back of the ute to go to bed - being an absolute non-camper I was slightly (read as HIGHLY) concerned with how I was going to survive, but as it turns out, I loved it! Not much sleep that night though because it was just TOO HOT! 

We were up reasonably early the next morning, BBQ bacon and eggs for brekkie and then off to the Ida Bay Railway. The railway is roughly a 2 hr round trip journey past some of Ida Bay's historic sites and at the end you stop at the most beautiful secluded beach and have about 20 mins to wander and relax and breathe it all in before you head back to the train station. 

 

That afternoon we packed up camp and headed up to another camping ground in Cygnet. It was quite late by the time we got there so we just set ourselves up, had a drink, read some more, possibly had a snooze and cooked our BBQ before going for a walk and finally heading to bed.

The next morning we were up fairly early to catch the ferry to Bruny Island for the last leg of our trip! We stayed in this little cottage in Adventure Bay and it was just gorgeous. And whilst I really enjoyed camping and sleeping in the ute, I have never been so happy to have a shower or sleep in a bed in my whole life.

Bruny Island has lots of local producers so on our first afternoon we stopped at the Bruny Island Smokehouse and brought some beautiful smoked salmon for our dinners, then we stopped at the Bruny Island Cheese Company, the Bruny Island Fudge Factory (I was raised to believe that if you were going to treat yourself to a relaxing bath or spa you should always do so with chocolates and a drink so buying fudge to have in the spa on our anniversary was mandatory) and then our final stop was the Berry Farm where we indulged in as much ice cream as we could cram into a waffle cone. 

The next day was our actual anniversary so we slept in and Mr B whipped us up one of his awesome bacon and egg breakfasts while I attempted to work the coffee machine. We spent most of the day paddling in Adventure Bay and around at Alonnah in our kayaks. I will admit that it did take some convincing to get me out in the ocean, but Mr B went out first and after 10 mins he hadn't been eaten by sharks or tipped up by a wave so I decided it was safe. I'm so glad I did because soon enough, while we were just casually paddling about, a pod of dolphins started to play in the bay and it was just one of the most amazing things we have ever seen, plus being so close to it made for a pretty specky anniversary! 

We even managed to fit in an evening game of frisbee on the beach! It's been years since I've thrown a frisbee around, but like a couple of kids, we spent hours throwing it around, talking, laughing and just taking some time out.

We did stray from our BBQ routine while we were staying on Bruny though. Both nights we made up a platter of toast, biscuits, tomato, cucumber, pepper cream cheese, tasty cheese and smoked salmon (with a side of bacon) and it was spot on. 

Whilst we were enjoying our dinner on the last night, we got to watch the elusive white wallaby just out the front of our cottage. Wallabies are fairly common down here, on any given night we can have 12 in our backyard, but neither Mr B or I had ever seen a white wallaby and whilst we had heard they could be seen hanging around this little cottage, we didn't actually expect to see one!

So that was our trip - there was lots of lounging around, lots of relaxing, even more laughing, lots of exploring, walks on the beach, paddling in the water, games of frisbee, good food and incredible company. We returned home the following day, exhausted, relaxed, grinning from ear to ear and even more excited to see what the next 12 months has in store for us...

Mr and Mrs B xx