Gismo Queen and her King

Flinders Island Monday 18th October 2021

Waking up on my birthday to views over the ocean is a definite highlight! The weather was a bit grey but I still enjoyed my morning cuppa looking out over the very calm water. A bit like caravan pack up mornings, pack up from a holiday is not the best feeling. First of all we enjoyed a bacon and eggs breakfast as we tried to finish some of the contents of our fridge, as the crayfish was going to take up most of the room in the esky! Although the intention had been to eat it last night, we were still too full from our lunch out, so we thought we'd save it for my actual birthday.

Breakfasted, packed, the house cleaned up - I took a last walk along the beach and dipped my hands in the water, given this was going to be the only way I entered the water on this trip! Reluctantly, we headed back up the goat track which seemed to really symbolise that our holiday was over.

In Whitemark, we headed to the bakery for elevenses, and to watch the high school graduation online of my best friend's son. Sad that he couldn't have the full formal ceremony at school but being in Victoria, this isn't possible at the moment. The school did the zoom presentation well though. After another shop visit, we headed south to Lady Barron. Although still early for our flight (and let's face it, there isn't any check in or baggage drop required!), we did have to fill the car with fuel and drop our rubbish at the tip (no roadside collection here!). We took the coast road to Lady Barron for different views, did all our necessary stops, took a little snack to Yellow Beach to kill some time and then headed to the airfield. It turns out the 2:30pm flight was oversubscribed so they put on 3 planes! I got to sit in the co-pilots seat which I thought was a good birthday present. The pilot warned me not to touch the pedals or yoke despite my offering that I did take 3 flying lessons 25 years ago - apparently that wasn't going to be helpful! We took off a lot more smoothly than our flights on Thursday and a mere 35 minutes later, touched down in Bridport.

As I drove out of the Bridport airfield, I kept trying to wave at my fellow drivers. Apparently the wave that is "de rigeur" on Flinders Island (and to caravanners!) is not required on the highways and byways of regular car drivers on mainland Tasmania.

Back home to happy fur kids. We cracked another bottle of Jansz, and the crayfish and agreed that the trip and the ending had been the perfect birthday celebration.

posted by Tracey @ 9:52 pm