Coningham Beach

You’d think that a picnic in early September would be a pretty safe bet. However, here in Tasmania, early September is equivalent to our early March, and there’s no way we’d be on a beach drinking wine and dipping our toes in the water surrounding Prince Edward Island in early March! Maybe we’d be digging out from a pre-St. Patrick’s Day storm… But the climate here is more like that of Victoria, BC, where my mom has the good sense to live… Right now the magnolias are out in full force, the cherry trees are in bloom, daffodils and rhododendrons are showing off their frills…

But September 12 in Tasmania turned out to be a glorious day, with temperatures reaching close to 20 degrees when the sun was out. Denbeigh packed us a picnic, and off she and her dad Bob and Maddie and I went in the station wagon.

Coningham Beach is just this side of Kettering, where the ferry to Bruny Island goes. I felt kind of smug knowing that that jut of land just over there was Tinderbox, and there was Bruny, right across the water…  We pretty much had the lovely sandy beach to ourselves, and I felt a little like Robinson Crusoe when he first found Friday’s footprint in the sand.

After lunch and more playing in the sand we drove to Peppermint Bay for coffee – a restaurant, bar, and conference centre set on a point of land looking over to Bruny. From there they offer tours on a luxury catamaran moored out front.  It all looked a little too costly for this poor student - I think I’ll save my shekels for Rob Pennicot’s adventure tour: after all, he’s our own Sylvia Ridgway’s nephew-in-law! Check out this great article about this award-winning business...

Looking across to Bruny Island

Thanks to Denbeigh, Bob, and Maddie for a great day all-round. And thanks, Bob, for buying the wine – a lovely rose from No Regrets Vineyard, which he’d picked up in the Salamanca Market – shades of summer yet to come – and a nice pinot noir from Australia. Maddie fell asleep in her car seat on the way home. I suspect we all felt the same – a perfect end to a perfect day. Life doesn’t get much better than this!