Headed off round 8.30 this morning to meet the water taxi at Swanwick that would ferry us across the Moulting Lagoon. We arrived extremely early which gave us a chance to enjoy the view and chat to a local who was there fishing with his son. His son looked to be about 10 and proudly informed us that he holds the record for the largest Bream caught (not sure if this is local, Tas or worldwide). Apparently the bream down here are huge – and live to over 80 years old – which seamed extraordinary to me- however entirely possible that they’re now laughing about the oldies on the tandem who fell for it hook line and sinker!

The ferry was actually a tinny- so we had a bit of manoeuvring to get the bike on.

The trip over to the other side of the lagoon only took about 10 minutes, but it saved us about 50km of hard uphill slog back-tracking out of Coles Bay. Once on the other side we had to wade from the boat to the shore with bike in the air and put everything back together on the beach. It felt like quite an adventure

Where we ended up was Dolphin Sands- a long peninsula about 25km out of Swansea. One of the upsides of this route was that we passed by the Melshell Oyster farm- so of course we felt compelled to sample their produce (or one of us did!)

This neck of the woods is tinder dry- with bushfire warnings all along the way. The road passes straight down the middle of this fairly narrow peninsula with dunes hiding the beaches- however a small detour revealed the incredible beaches that we continue to be awed by.

Arrived in Swansea in time for a late lunch at the bakery that moonlights as the local Tavern

Arrived at our new little home mid afternoon. The most GORGEOUS little cottage on the outskirts of Swansea. The cottage is set amongst an equally beautiful wandering cottage garden in full flower- and OMG- it has a bath!!! I couldn’t get into it quickly enough to soak the battle worn muscles!

Cottage all set up with breakfast provisions including a home baked loaf of bread and eggs fresh from the chickens bottom. Have two nights here and I don’t know how we will leave when the time comes!