As the highway left the waterline and moved more or less parallel to the edge of the Huon estuary, the views across the water continued but were more panoramic, a natural consequence of a bit of height. We were, however, back beside the water around Deep Bay for the rest of the run in to Cygnet, where lunch at The Red Velvet Lounge was the day's main agenda item.
Cygnet is another location that links back to French navigator Bruni D'Entrecasteaux, who named the bay on which the town is located Port des Cygnes (Port of Swans) in 1793 due to the large number of swans he observed in the area.
European settlement in the area dates back to the arrival of William Nichols n 1834, the township of Port Cygnet was surveyed in 1840 and probation stations for convicts operated at Port Cygnet, Lymington, Nicholls Rivulet and Huon Island after 1845. Port Cygnet picked up a post office in 1854, had its name changed to Lovett in 1895 and became Cygnet in 1915.
Today the town is best known as the location of SBS TV’s Gourmet Farmer, the former restaurant critic Matthew Evans, and the annual Cygnet Folk Festival in early January each year. The Festival attracts musicians from around the world, and in an interesting display of community involvement they’re billeted with locals. Not bad going in a little place with a population of less than a thousand.
The region might have been best known for apple and cherry orchards, but there’s an increasingly diverse food and wine scene that stretches much wider than Evans and associates and the town’s two highly rated restaurants.