A Devilish Day

More lack of internet, thus today's is very long to make up for it

Today was a massive travel day. It started before 7 and didn’t end until around 6. Now while this sounds completely unbearable in fact it wasn’t that bad. The fact I was not expected to drive guaranteed that I would be asleep for the first 3-4 hours of the trip. I was. I missed a ferry ride and apparently an eagle. That is unfortunate, but on the other hand: sleep. So after one leg of the journey my mom took over driving. Just as the first time my dad tried, I thought that there was a serious attempt on my life. Somehow I survived. Eventually we stopped at Trowunna Wildlife Park. The main attraction was to see Tasmanian Devils. This was not a park where the wildlife was all out there on their own, it was kind of zoo like. Only a nice zoo where the animals aren’t in small cages with iron bars. The devils were right out in front and were running around. The rest of the park was deserted except for a young French couple, so there weren’t lots of annoying little kids in the way like a regular zoo. So we wandered around for a while looking at the animals. There were three eagles sitting together with a couple ravens to keep them company. There were a bunch of other birds too, wombats, koalas, and then there were free range animals. These were ducks, geese, kangaroos, and wallabies that were allowed just to amble around the park. We were giving bags of food to feed them as we went. All the kangaroos were in one area and eager for food. I counted how many there were: 34. No cages, all trying to get food, circling around me in a frightening manner (not really). They’d even get behind you so as you tried to run away they’d be there. After exhausting all the feed we went back up to the main area because it was time for an interactive tour and feeding. The French couple and we three arrive and the zookeeper Corey asked us to hold on a second as he went to get a wombat. A minute or two later he returns carrying a wombat. His name was Rex.

Rex

We got to pet Rex as he walked on top of a table. There was also plenty of facts and information being taught, but I wont bore you with that. After that Corey brought us over to the baby Devils exhibit and caught one (by the tale). He explained that while most animals here were being rehabilitated or could not return to the wild (all the eagles had wing amputations for example). The Devils were a back up population incase the cancer running through the population kills off all the wild ones. The Australian government sponsors places around the country to keep about 1500 Devils raised out of the wild. We also got to pet the devil and learn all about him too.

How can you call this a devil?

His name was Minion. Then we got to see a feeding. Corey grabbed a wallaby carcass and tossed it in. It was road kill they found that morning. Devils like road kill. They are carnivores, but very bad at catching their own food, thus road kill. They’re actually pretty cute, looking at them you get confused why they’re called devils, then you see them feeding and understand. They did not learn how to share in kindergarten.

We get to the Cradle Mountain Lodge where we are staying, and of course see a wombat on the way, then there’s one right outside reception. We find out there is no free internet in the rooms, but there is a hot tub, odd priorities. So that brings us today. I decided to take the day off, do some reading, relaxing. Mom and Dad went to a park and got rained on all day so I think I made the correct choice.