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Published: January 29th 2009
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Last night it rained, and rained, and rained and rained and rained! The wind was also really strong - I just love camping! I woke up at 1.30am to the sound of the wind and also because i was so cold! Chris and i both woke up loads throughout the night! I was wearing 2 layers, even 2 pairs of socks but i was still cold! Apparently it's like this in the winter but it's MID-SUMMER!!!! I can't believe our luck - again! But we found out this morning that we were the envy of the other campers as our tent didn 't move! - alot of them had half collapsed in the night!
Chris went for a run in the rain whilst i stayed wrapped up in the warmth of my sleeping bag! After breakfast we headed to Port Arthur. We stopped in Taranna to go to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park. We got in cheaper as we had our YHA membership - it's amazing the discounts you can get with it! - we put our rain jackets on and had a walk around. We were just in time for one of the feedings. The have various enclosures depending on
the age of the devils and have about 15 more devils out back that they use for breeding.
A Tasmanian devil only lives 5-6 years. They are the size of a badger, black with a couple of white markings, these are like their fingerprints, they are all different. Their jaw strength is over 3000 p/sq inch, the second strongest in the world after the shark. To have a comparison a human jaw is only about 200 and a pitbull is 1000. They use this strength to crush through bones, fur, flesh basically anything. As they are not very quick and mobile, nor very clever and also short sighted they live as scavangers. One of their favorites is mobile phones but also got their teeth on a pair of $800 glasses the other week! Ooops! They eat up to half their own body weight but can go a couple of days without a feed. They have been seen eating a cow! They don't live in groups, the female is normally smaller and lives on her own. When she has babies, she gives birth to 15 but can only sustain 4 in her pouch, so it's survival of the fittest. They don't
Eastern Quolls
Cute and we got to see them in the wild too! go near the males as they would eat the babies! As there is no pack order you can't keep them as pets, ie cuddle them, as if they tried to warn you with a nip they would break your hand, it happended to one of the keepers!
Oh the myth of them spinning aorund isn't true - good old american tv!
The Tasmanians are quite worried about them at the moment as over the last 15 years a cancer has been spreading amonst them. It is passed on my saliver, so fights etc which happens alot. They grow tumors on their faces and necks and once they have been bitten they only have 3-4 months to live. They don't know what to do at the moment as it is unlike any other cancer.
We got to walk around the rest of the park and got to see some amazing brids of prey, possums and eastern quolls.
Then we drove to Port Arthur. We thought it would be an old town but it turns out it's a historic site and you have to pay to go in. As we were doing the ghost tour in the evening we didn;t want to
Port Arthur
This is where we did our ghost tour - in the wet and wind! pay another $27 each to walk around so we decided to have a drive around.
We went to Palmers Hill Lookout then to White Beech - yes just a white beech! Then drove back to the car park as the weather was so bad! As i hadn'r had much sleep i was happy to have a nap in the car so i could enjoy the evening walk. Chris got his waterproofs on and ent for a walk. He walked to Stuarts Bay and the track took him into Port Arthur and there was no-one there to ask him for a pass so he had a little nosy around before coming back!
]We had dinner in the cafe there whilst waiting to go on the ghost tour. at 9.05 we went on the tour. Tracy our guide asked for 3 lantern bearers, i voluntred and got named Darling for the rest of the evening! But at least i could see! I was aksed to follow her up front which was nice! We walked around the site and got told several stories that had happended over the years. They are only allowed to tell stories of true events. Every time a sigting of a ghost is seen it is logged, at the end of the year they see if they have any 3 stories that match. If so they then look into the facts and if it all adds up they incorporate it into the tours. Quite a good way really A few odd things happened throughout the evening. A brilliannt tour - defiently worth doing!
We got back around 12.30 and went straight to bed!
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