Adventure Bay

37km One Way Medium, can be sealed road all the way or there is a beautiful dirt back road way for the last third of the ride, plenty of places to stop along the way (House of Whiskey, Get Shucked, Bruny Cheese and Beer, Honey, Fudge and Berries) once arriving, you may find staying a few days and exploring the area irresistible. Adventure Bay has a fabulous general store that is next door to a public BBQ area, bowls club, Bligh museum and Pennicott Journeys.

If your observant and a little lucky, you might get the unique opportunity of spotting one of the famous white wallabies. There are some great rides and walks in the area, safe swimming beach and Adventure Bay offers splendid accommodation options.

Tour Highlights

House of Whiskey, Get Shucked, Bruny Cheese and Beer, Honey, air strip and sight seeing flights, the Neck look out, Fudge and Berries, lovely views. Fantastic general store with public BBQ facilities next door.

History of the Area

The first European to sight the bay was explorer Abel Tasman, who sought to anchor his vessel Heemskerck there in 1642. Instead, Heemskerck was driven back offshore by a storm, in token of which Tasman named the place Storm Bay.[2][a] Captain Tobias Furneaux renamed it in March 1773, in honour of his ship HMS Adventure, which he had anchored in the bay for five days after becoming separated from Captain James Cook's HMS Resolution during Cook's second voyage to the Pacific search of Terra Australis Incognita.[2] Furneaux's log made clear the bay was an excellent anchorage for resupplying vessels: To the SW of the first watering place there is a large lagoon which I believe has plenty of fish in it for one of our Gentlemen caught upwards of 2 dozen trout, and shot a possum which was the only animal we saw. There are a great many gum trees and of a vast thickness and height, one of which measured in circumference 26 feet and the height under the branches was 20 feet."[3] Others among Furneaux's crew spotted evidence of what they believed were small deer but were more likely kangaroos.[3] Furneaux also noted signs of an Aboriginal settlement in the form of "several huts or wigwams on shore, with several bags of grass in which they carry their shellfish."[3] - but the branches of which the huts were made were "split and torn" and there was "not the least appearance of any people."[3] Reliably mapped and offering an abundance of water, fresh water and game, Adventure Bay quickly became a popular anchorage for European explorers. Cook's Resolution watered there in 1777, followed by William Bligh aboard HMS Bounty in 1788 and HMS Providence in 1792. Others who resupplied their vessels in the bay in this period included Bruni d'Entrecasteaux aboard Recherché in 1792 and 1793, and Nicolas Baudin in the corvette Géographe in 1802. Matthew Flinders also tried to enter the bay with Norfolk in 1798.