Rita at Dove Lake with Cradle Mountain beyondOur first two weeks here in Tasmania have been terrific, but I'd forgotten how really remote this area is - no internet connectivity except for a few dial-up places with speeds so slow that it took 20 minutes just to clear emails the first time I tried. Am sitting in an internet cafe in Hobart that actually has high speed broadband...and feeling like a returned astronaut who's been out of communication with NASA for a year or two.
Been doing some great hikes around Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Claire National Park, which is a world heritage area that takes up most of central Tasmania. Here are the photos:
Spectacular Scenery around every turn in the trail
The place we stayed was surrounded by native bush...and native critters. These Pademelons are shown from our back porch, and the Currawong below was quite a moocher in the morning - showed up as soon as the lights came on in the cabin - waiting to be fed.
The area is dotted with buttongrass moors, which are home to native Wombats. This hillside above looked so much like Hobbiton that we had to take a photo. Below is a look at one of the not-so-little guys out and about - they can get to almosr 100 lbs.
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Almost had to kick this little Wallaby in the butt to get him to move off the trail so we could pass one morning, so intent was he on nibbling on a bit of mushroom. Lots of these little guys all over the place..jpg)
Rita cuddling with one of the Wombats during a stop at the Trowanna Animal Park in Moss Creek. They collect orphaned animals, raise them to adult-hood, then release them once they can manage on their own. They mainly collect the babies from the pouches of dead mothers who have become road kill - a real problem here at dusk and in the early AM apparently..jpg)
On the Dove Lake Walk
A Tasmanian Devil
This Echidna just walked out of the forest one afternoon as I waited for Rita to return to the car.
My time has about expired so I need to hit "Publish" just to get this out. Will try to fill in later with better commentary. Now it's off to the other side of the Park - Lake St. Claire.
2 comments:
I can't believe all the wildlife pics you guys took--must be a pretty active place in that regard. Do the wallabies pretty much ignore people or what? Pretty amazing pictures!--Mike
They're generally pretty skittish but do get acclimated to people around the trail heads. There are signs all over the place cautioning against feeding the wildlife and thus getting them dependent on people, but folks do it anyway.
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