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Published: November 2nd 2007
Caleb was bound for Tasmania for work and seeing as how I didn't have a job (at the time) I opted to tag along with big ideas of travelling around the whole island for the full 3 days we had and seeing masses of wildlife along the way (Tasmania has Tasmanian Devils, wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, quolls, pademelons platypus, penguins, seals as well as lots of birds). I was a little concerned about what I'd got myself in for when my TINY plane finally arrived at the not-much-bigger Devonport airport and I had to retrieve my suitcase not from a conveyor belt but from a trailer. But I was still in high spirits and ready for our big day on Friday to visit Cradle Mountain, an "icon" of Tasmania.
And so visit Cradle Mountain we did and it was very scenic. We even walked around Dove Lake, which took about an hour and a half - an hour and a half of looking out for wildlife aplenty and coming out having seen a crow (not that it wasn't a nice crow). We headed to the town of "Penguin" (with a name like that I was on the lookout all the way
along the coast) at dinner time to a pretty good restaurant that had been suggested called 'Wild' (with a name like that... just kidding, I would have been a bit disturbed to see wildlife in there).
So then came Saturday... and the rain... So we opted out of a massive trip across Tasmania to see Wineglass Bay and instead headed for the much-closer town of Stanley, ready to see "The Nut", a big mountain by the sea with a cable car on it and I think there were supposed to be seals nearby. I'm guessing Stanley with "The Nut" is a bit like Mount Maunganui, but even when we were at the carpark halfway up "The Nut" it wasn't really visible to us through the rain... So instead we headed back to Devonport stopping in at "Fernglade" on the way, a nice little park with a river that is supposed to be good for spotting platypusses - but alas the platypusses stayed wherever they were hiding and laughed amongst themselves at us walking around quietly looking for them... But then as we were driving along the coast I spotted some whales out at sea! But it was actually a
Fi
Cradle Mountain in backgroundbunch of kayakers... So we continued onwards and found ourselves a chocolate factory.
Decided that the animals really must be nocturnal after all, so when the rain eased up in the evening we went out looking for platypusses in Latrobe. We drove to a few spots to find the optimum 'platypus viewing spot' and believed we had seen a platypus swim past us as a v-shaped ripple went past us down the river. A heap more patience later and I actually did manage to see a platypus come out of the water and start grooming itself... and then it saw me and escaped.
Sunday came and the rain was all on again. Giving up on viewing 'wildlife' in the wild, we headed out to Trowunna Wildlife Park, where they look after orphaned or injured wildlife and then slow-release them back into the wild (releasing them into the park grounds first and then outside). So I finally got to see my first real bit of wildlife... and it was a hideous black leech on my leg that had somehow got there from the wet grass in the park.
Don't worry, I did get to cuddle a wombat and
pat a Tasmanian devil and feed a kangaroo and see wallabies, quolls and pademelons etc. at the Wildlife Park, and we stopped in at this Raspberry farm that had really good chocolate raspberries, so I was happy.
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Aileen Buscke
non-member comment
Fantastic!
THIS IS FANTASTIC! The pics are great...haven't read all the words but I will do later today. Alls well here on the home front and at the Club, Look forward to some more 'stuff' Cheers Ailes