Thursday, March 3, 2016

Saturday, February 27, 2016 – Tassie Devils, Quolls, Wombats, Wallabies, Mountain Climbs and all things Tassie

What an incredible day we had! We stayed overnight in the best place we have had in Australia, barring the Kearneys, and the flat in Hobart. It was an amazing haven in a wild land. 

The day started off with a visit  at our ground floor verandah by some wallabies. Then Ray and I made a visit to the “Devils@Cradle” where we had a hands on encounter with Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, and Quolls….and of course the Wallabies had to get involved too!!  We learned about their life, and how threatened they are. Apparently the Devils are fighting a disease that is like a cancer that spreads from animal to animal. The centre is breeding a group of disease free Devils and at the same time promoting the emergence of a vaccine against the disease. If the vaccine proves successful, the healthy Devils will be vaccinated and then set free in the wilds so that the vaccine will spread to the affected Devils and thus they hope to save the Tasmanian Devils from extinction. They are the cutest little animals when they are small, quite cuddly, but as they grow older they become quite feisty. We experienced quite a set too between two brothers and the growling penetrated the whole area. The Wallabies though, were quite unaffected. The wallabies are a strange animal and I must look up more about them……when I get Internet – none tonight!!

After filling our minds and hearts with these beautiful animals, we set off on our walk in Cradle Mountain Park. The scenery was amazing…quite different from the BC scenery, but still beautiful: lots of the button grass, boardwalks over peat bogs, lakes, and mountains. We saw a wombat by the side of the trail as well! You’ll see the pictures. We drove to the Visitor’s Centre and parked our car, and then caught the “shuttle” to the Ronny Creek car park. From there we joined the Overland Track which is a track that goes from one end of the park to the other – it is about 80k and takes about 6 days to do the whole walk. We followed the Overland Track up to Marions Lookout at 1223m, up well over 300/400 steps, rocks, scree, and on the deepest of the rocks we had assistance from chains. It was quite a climb but no worse than Wahna Picchu or Gros Morne hikes. We had a wonderful view over the spectacular glacial Crater Lake surrounded by 200 metre high cliffs covered with deciduous beech. Then we descended  past Wombat Pool  with its ancient pencil pines and on to Lake Lilla. We continued on to Dove Lake with the amazing views of Cradle Mountain shrouded in the clouds!  Cradle Mountain is so called because it looks like a cradle with a baby in the middle. Anyway, it would have been an amazing view, but the weather was not totally cooperating; we had had sprinkling rain on and off for most of the walk, and the clouds floated in and out over the top of Cradle Mountain so I was never able to get the much advertised picture of “Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake”. None the less, the whole experience was amazing. It was close to 7k and it took us about 3 hours. 

We met some really nice people along the way. Everyone says “hello” and it is quite a study in what a person conveys with these few words. The Japanese girls are always so upbeat and friendly, the Aussies a little more perfunctory, but everyone is warm and friendly. We met a lovely French family and lovely woman from Western Australia whose husband had chosen a different route and she knew she was going to be arriving far behind him, plus she was making sooo many stops for photos!! So, although you were in the middle of nowhere, there were many other hikers that you met along the way. 

We caught the shuttle back to the Visitor’s Centre and grabbed a coffee and a tea in their café before climbing into the car and heading for Deloraine. 

We thought the day couldn’t get much better but the drive was incredible: we climbed up and down steep mountains, through the most beautifully treed forests; we passed a dam and another of the water pipes leading water down the mountains into the dam. There must be an amazing amount of dams in this area. That is one thing I don’t recall seeing in the Banff/Jasper area. Then all of a sudden, about 30k from Deloraine we emerged from all this wilderness and mountain scenery into the lush green pastures of the plains with highland cattle, sleek black cows, and sheep. It was like an English countryside. We drove through Mole Creek which was a beautiful little town, so fresh and open compared to the closure of the mountains and forests.


And then around 6:30/7:00 p.m we arrived in Deloraine a nice town surrounded by hills and mountains. We picked up the keys for our “cottage” on the main street from the Shell gas station, and here we are, in this quaint little 3 bedroom cottage with a history dating from the late 1800s when the great-grandfather of the chap who owns it now was sent out to Tasmania for steeling a coin! It seems much more relaxing to be able to spread out, as opposed to living in “one” room, and we are enjoying it. Of course, Ray is in bed, and I am writing my blog on my own!! But, I don’t feel guilty, because I am in the kitchen at the dining table, and he is in the bedroom all on his own, so I am not disturbing him. Till I go to bed!! …..and of course, we don’t have any Internet!!!  I am hoping our Aussie cell phones are working….but that is our only contact with the outside world and our own world! 

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