Sunday, August 19, 2007

 

The Tasmanian Devil Park!

 

We got a late start this morning because we’ve been making plans for our trip to Queensland during the children’s school holidays. Their last day of this term is Sept. 6^th, then they have a two-week break, so we have to hurry! It’s kind of like trying to schedule a last-minute trip from Burlington to Florida during the February vacation. Anyway, we have a hotel, so that worry is done. More about that trip later!

 

So today we headed back to the Tasman peninsula, where we did our Cape Huay bushwalk last week. Annapurna hadn’t been with us, and the drive there was amazingly beautiful, so we wanted to go again. Also, this time we wanted to see the Tasmanian Devil Park, which was right before the entrance to the park. WOW!! It was fabulous!

 

The view from an overlook – just to remind you how beautiful this peninsula is! The farthest point is Cape Huay, where we bushwalked last weekend. You can see the two islands, called the Lanterns, off the tip of the point, with the Candlestick, a tall column of dolerite, poking up between the point and the first Lantern.

 

It’s really hard to describe how wonderful this visit was. What made it special was that you were right in among the animals or else very, very close. And there just weren’t that many people around! The keeper was wonderful at answering questions (one keeper did everything!). It reminded me of the little Coyote Point zoo near where we used to live in California. It just had a few exhibits of local animals, but you could see them quite close up. The Devil Park also reminded me a bit of a petting zoo. The difference was that the animals were things like Tasmanian devils, sulfur-crested cockatoos, tawny frogmouths, kangaroos, wallabies and pademelons!

 

The highlight of the zoo is the devil feeding. They are so cute and cuddly when you see them lying there all snuggled up together, but very ferocious when they eat. They are scavengers and they make a wild, snorting noise to keep the other devils away from the food they have. The devils fight and race to get each other’s food. It’s amazing how fast they can go!

 

A teenage devil (about 18 months).

 

Snuggling with the other devils

 

Fighting over a wallaby tail (I think)

 

The chatty cockatoo was also fun. “Hello? Hello? Hello?” He was in a cage with other, non-chatty cockatoos (stunningly beautiful birds!) and some parrots. Apparently he spent 40 years with a family, but has been in the park for the past 25 years. They live a long time! He also says a lot of other things that we could almost understand. One lady near us suddenly said “I think I know what he said and I’m NOT repeating it!” The keeper said he’s picked up a rich vocabulary of swear words, but with the double barrier of the accent (he sounds Australian!) and the slang, we just missed it. He was fun though!

 

One of the best things, though, was the kangaroo/wallaby feeding. You just walk right in! It has the feeling of a herd of deer, and the gate is sort of similar. You just walk in and the kangaroos and wallabies are just lying around, or doing a little hopping. When the keeper started approaching they got very alert, and came over. They were so tame you could hand-feed them!

 

So many kangaroos!

 

The kangaroos would hold your hand in place with their hands. It was a really weird feeling!

 

 

 

 

Because it is spring (well, late winter) lots of the females had young ones in the pouches and we’d see the pouch moving around, and keep seeing a leg or ear or head peek out – so cool!!

 

An ear, a leg and a tail. How do they do that?

 

And finally, the whole head!

 

Sometimes we’d see a baby poke its head out and nibble the grass while the mother was leaning over eating grass. I guess they still mostly drink milk, but they like to practice on tender new grass.

 

At the end, the zookeeper brought out the birds he was training.

 

These birds reminded me of the moths that blend in with the tree trunks they’re sitting on. They’re called a tawny frogmouth because of how wide they open their mouths when they’re eating. Their coloring matches the trees of the area in which they live. These blended in perfectly with the blue gums. I hadn’t even seen them until the keeper pointed out where they were waiting!

 

This amazing 18-month old brown falcon flew through Rama’s legs for a treat.

Eileen also volunteered and said she felt the wings touch her legs. He was FAST! Here he is eating his reward. He’s spreading his wings so we won’t see it.

 

Oh yes, and we found out on the way out that this pass is good for a year! So we’ll be back. He hadn’t told us that when we bought the tickets (seemed kind of pricey for a one-day visit!) because with our accents he just assumed we were passing through.

 

Wattle flowers in bloom (a kind of Acacia). We passed them blooming all over.

 

Afterwards, we had a cup of tea with Jenny, a technician in the department who has a house less than half a mile away. She was on the hike with us last weekend and used to work for Jim, my host. Her place is in a beautiful spot and she has a lovely house and garden. She’s been playing the Celtic harp for the last 4 years and had two beautiful harps, one a brilliant blue!

 

We also had an amazing lunch at the Mussel Boys, a restaurant just down the road from the Devil Park, because their cafe is not open during the off-season.  Take a look at the review in The Australian (a newspaper) http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,21867417-35795,00.html. The restaurant was fancier than we wanted at the time, because we were rushing back to the Devil feeding, but it was delicious! It was recommended by the owner/manager of the Devil park – he was quite proud that a restaurant in his area had had a review in The Australian – I guess it’s like a review in the NYTimes.

 

Then a quick stop at the Dunalley bakery (our 3^rd stop in 8 days!) to fortify us for the drive back (about an hour and a half). We ended up arriving home later than we had expected. Good thing we were only having pasta tonight! We ended up driving back in the dark – a very windy road, but fortunately no kangaroos hopping across the road (despite a lot of warning signs) – but a very lovely sunset. There was no way I could keep to the 100 km/hr speed limit on this winding road. The best I could manage was 80, so it probably took longer than for the locals.

 

What a fabulous day! Everyone agreed it had been one of the best.