You saucy little devil you!

Today is our last day in Tasmania and we had ticked most of the boxes except one, Tassie Devils, ok Tasmanian Tigers as well but my time machine is broken. There are plenty of wildlife parks but Ann wants to go to Trowannin which she saw in a dvd on the day we went to Port Arthur.

After a week of touring it was nice to have a sleep in and we headed off at the crack of 11am. We thought we would pick up lunch at the local bakery but it turned out to be more souvenir shop than bakery so we stoked up on souvenirs instead, although I did try one of their slices.

The sanctuary is just past Mole creek but what they failed to mention is that at Mole Creek is Bee World. Unfortunately Bee World is closed due to unforeseen circumstances, what like bees are not that exciting??? But the honey gift shop is still open, a final chance to stock up on honey infused band aids and body rubs, they give you a nice golden tinge just don’t stop for too long or the ants will eat you alive. The lady in the honey pot was surprised we didn’t find anything we liked, Ann meanwhile found a local restored building where I suspect the owners had some problems getting approval for the repairs they planned.

But enough frivolity we have come all this way to see the devils or was that the fire? For me the fire for Ann the devils. We turned up with just enough time to spy on a few Devils before the guided tour. Most of the animals here get released back to the wild so their human interaction is limited, but with only four of us on the tour today we were in for a treat.

First we met Tina the wombat, Matt, her brother has matured a little faster and being a solitary animal has decided he doesn’t have the time for public shows. Tina on the other hand still thinks it is fun, but according to the guide she is getting less and less interested. Today we caught Tina on a good day and she was more than happy to interact with us and have her photo taken.

Next stop the Quolls and was he more interested in eating the guides sheepskin coat. The quoll was a teenager and had recently been separated from his roommate because he was getting real interested in her, so he was pretty antsy, so much so that the guide decided to put him away.

And now the main event the Tassie Devils and today they are feeding the teenagers, there are eight of them in the enclosure but only half of them are interested in come out for a feed. They are semi-social animals so live a solitary life and only come together for eating and one other thing. One of the young males wasn’t that hungry so he thought he’d try his luck at some sweet loving. But if you are a Tassie devil it is anything but sweet loving, you grab her by the neck sink your teeth in and hang on. It seems his rodeo skills need work so he went back to eating.

After a while of snarling growling and generally fighting for food or fun the devils then decided the guide look tasty and as a group they headed over to check out his leather boots. Andrew decided this was the time to end the show before he became part of it.

Ann still had animal itches to scratch so while she headed out to see the devils in retirement, the raptors and the rest of the zoo I headed back to the fire. After thawing out I took some food out for Ann to feed the kangaroos, well more to wrestle with one big roo that wanted all the food. This included him boofing the smaller roos out of the way and sticking his head in the food bag while Ann was distracted. All this feeding frenzy reminded us it was mid afternoon and we hadn’t had lunch ourselves, so we headed to the DeLorian or was that Deloraine?

Our most important consideration was somewhere warm and as a result we stumbled into a vegan paleo café, but they let me in even though I did not have enough hair for a top bun. I decided to go fully paleo just like the caveman did and ordered a hot Nutella drink topped with almond milk, which actually wasn’t too bad, but I am not sure how the cavemen made frothy almond milk, maybe the Nutella might have been a problem too?

On the way home we detoured to Cataract gorge as the sun was setting, ie 4.30pm. The rain hadn’t eased up so we only did a few short walks including the suspension bridge. The whole area is amazing with the gorge opening up ono the parklands. On the walk back to the car the pademelons were out feeding, and there was a group of running trying their hardest but unable to raise a sweat.

Ann was keen to hit the Prince of Wales for the third night in a row but I insisted we try somewhere else, that may have been a mistake. The place was much flasher than the pub but they tried too hard with their meals, the presentation was awesome but the flavour not so. I also tried the Meade, was offered a tester but turned it down, manned up and ordered a pot. I had two mouthfuls, only because I thought I must have inhaled a stink beetle on the first one, nope. Just to prove it is a small town we ran into the world’s happiest retiree who we shared the fire with in the pub two days ago.

Back to the chapel to try and see if I can cram everything in the suitcases including the kilos of smelly cheeses I bought. Since I am doing the packing I ran out of room in my suitcase for the cheese and they ended up in Ann’s bag, hopefully they won’t stink out her clothes too much.

It has been a great time in Tassie with only one wet day, we have seen heaps and still leave wanting to come back. The weather has threatened rain every day but mostly been good except it looks like Hobart is experiencing the worst weather in years, luckily we are heading home.Read more