The anchorage at Prosser Bay was quite rolly due to easterly swell and the two of us were happy to leave for Maria Island, having a good sail almost the whole way. It was late morning when we arrived and anchored along with a few other boats before having an early lunch and heading ashore. The weather was a bit like Berlin, not too promising - Hobart (and area) is the coldest place to be in Australia at the moment… We decided to walk to the ruins of a probation station from the mid 19th century. It was a nice walk, that led us through forest and swampy areas. The various different songs of the birds are still exotic to me and I enjoy them every time. I saw my very first Wombat and, eventually, kangaroos. Steve and I have this little competition going (whose photos are better; at the end we never compare, but it is an ongoing joke) - and I thought, I would win the kangaroo photo of the day, as I have a very fine zoom lens. Unfortunately I wasn’t familiar with this lens and I assume, the prize went to him.
By the time we returned to the dinghy, the sky was blue and it was rather warm, we therefore enjoyed a glass of wine and the last (German ültje) mixed nuts bag - thanks, Carola, for introducing them to me…
The following day we decided to explore the southern half of the island. After an easy morning we prepared some sandwiches and went ashore to walk the Haunted Harbour track. The previous day we had seen lots of cyclists out so I expected to see a lot of cyclists again but we were the only ones on the track. The walk was mostly through the forest, slowly and steadily uphill we walked. Being spoilt by the diversity of ecosystems the day before, I thought it was comparatively boring, but all of a sudden we saw a sign post, Haunted Bay, and surely enough we saw the water shining through the leaves a few steps later. It looked pretty - but was it worth continuing the trek? Well, we continued walking, actually more like climbed downhill. It started raining and the wind picked up, but as we were so close to the sea shore, we continued and what a reward - the rocks seemed to be painted in red and yellow (by algae or lichen (?) ), sometimes spotted by little green patches of a halophilic plant. The rocks also were a perfect shelter and we enjoyed our sandwiches. After retracing our steps we found our way back to the dinghy. That day there was no doubt about the best photos - I had taken my lenses but forgotten my camera - but I am all the more astonished how good the pics are taken with my mobile phone are. But the price - without having seen them - is to Steve.
Back at the boat we both wanted to learn more about the island. Steve found out that the "Haunted Bay“ was named that way for the eerie sounds the penguins made. I had found out, that the island is sort of a refugee for the Tasmanian Devil, an endangered species that was brought to Maria Island to protect them. They chased away all (!) the penguins - before there were 3000 penguin pairs. That posed the question to me: will we ever understand, that everything is connected to everything - if we interfere somewhere we have to know, that it will have consequences! Good old Alexander v. Humboldt discerned that almost 250 years ago - why don’t we learn?
On 6 January at 04:40 we headed to Dunalley and passed through the Denison Canal just after 09:00. I don’t know, but Steve must have - like me - sweated a bit as Torea’s draft is 2 m and at times the water was as shallow as 2.6m!
In the late morning we arrived in Flinders Bay, where Steve set the anchor. It is like paradise to me - apart from a few houses, there is nothing! We hear a few frogs and birds - but no cars or human voices in the distance. We are the only ones in the little bay and at least now we feel well sheltered. The wind is not about to change for the next days, so we will probably stay in this area for a while.