We start driving, and the weather is nice. There are some clouds but nice breaks of blue sky and sun. The temperature is cool, though, about 60 degrees farenheit. We retrace our path from the drive here passing through the towns of Swansea and Orford. However, when we reach the town of Sorrell, we don't head to Hobart but south towards the Tasman Peninsula. There are three sights to see on our agenda. The peninsula is beautiful and a little different from where we had come from up north. The grass is a little greener and the trees a lot fuller, very pleasant rolling terrain. We soon arrive at our first destination: the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park.
Tasmanian Devils are endangered. There is a facial cancer for which there is no cure, and given that the Devils tend to bite each other in the face, the cancer will likely wipe out the entire species. There is a plan to prevent this, however. The Tasman Peninsula is isolated from the rest of Tasmania by a man made canal. The Devils on the peninsula do not have the cancer, so they are protected so long as they do not come into contact with the other Devils. Over the next 15 years, the Devils on the mainland will likely all die, then the Devils on the peninsula can be used to repopulate the mainland. The Conservation Park is working on the effort, as well as providing a place for the public to come and see the Devils. We arrive at 1pm and we are in luck. There will be a feeding of the Devils at 1:30pm that we can watch. The Devils are not large, about the size of a small dog, but they have vicious teeth and as we watch, two of them begin to bicker and release a large hissing sound. All of us viewers jump in fright! Here is the best picture of a Devil that I took:
They have red ears and a white stripe n their chests, not entirely ugly.
The feeding provides a lot of information on the Devils. Here is what we learned: they are slow, have bad eyesight, and are terrible hunters at night when they are active. So they are scavengers, which means they eat things that are already dead, preferably a wallabee, but really anything. They eat all of their victims, including bone, fur, teeth, and anything else. There is only one part of the corpse they won't ear: the intestines. They don't like the intestines since they are likely full of grass or other vegetable matter, and Devils only want meat! If they find a large victim, they will signal other Devils with their voices to share -- how nice!
One other comment on the feeding: the ranger pulled out chunks of wallabee to give to the Devils using her bare hands. With blood on her hands, she then continued the presentation, kind of gross. The two Devils in the enclosure that we saw fed were one male and one female. They were named Chumbo and Missy!
Our next destination of Port Arthur. It is not really a town, but a historic site. Port Arthur was one of the original settlements of Tasmania, which means it was established to incarcerate transported convicts. It has a brutal history and was used as some sort of prison for decades. Later abandonned, it was almost lost to history, but the government stepped in and established this historic site in order to preserve what was left of the buildings, which are mostly just ruins at this point. The site is rather large and takes a few hours to walk around and read the signs that explain the various buildings/ruins. Our luck is not so good, though, as the weather has turned rainy just as we are about to set out on our tour, so we walk around in the rain. Fortunately, we do have umbrellas. Most of the Australians, for some reason, do not. I wish I could provide more detailed information on the history of this place, but I have not yet done my reading! When we departed, I bought a short book on the history of Port Arthur which will educate me. Here is link to the official web site, if anyone would like to do their own reading, or just look at a few pictures (which I have failed to provide in this blog):
Finally, we drive a few miles farther south to view White Beach, which Fodor's guidebook describes as Tasmania's most beautiful beach. Who can pass this up? It is really at the end of the world, which is what the end of the Tasman Peninsula feels like. It is a long crescent beach with gentle waves and, of course, the advertised white sand. Now it is time to make the return drive to Hobart.
Back in Hobart, we return to Maldini's Italian restaurant (third time here) for dinner. We share starters of a local grilled calanmari salad with citrus and fennel and tomate bruschetta, which is fantastic. For mains, Rob has spaghetti and meatballs, and I have a seafood risotto. Both portions are large, and neither of us can finish. Our wine is a Bream Creek pinot noir, which is a light style wine. We return to our hotel room to watch some Australian Open tennis. Today was a lot of driving -- all on the wrong side of the road!
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