We drove back to the town of Bicheno, where we picked up some food and a phone card. We continued going north because we had to go to Natureworld. This is not usuall
y my style to go check out animals in captivity, but Jacqueline really wanted to learn about all of the animals. So we paid our $16 apiece, not cheap, and we were now in Natureworld. The coolest thing to see was of course the Tasmanian Devil. It looks very little like Taz from the Looney Tunes, but I guess it is close enough considering that Bugs Bunn
y doesn’t look like many rabbits I have seen either. They were funny creatures and they seemed to spend a lot of time running around in circles inside of their cages. We checked out the wombats which were giant hamster looking things. There were many birds around also including many varieties of parrots. We learned the difference between the three levels of kangaroos. Pademelons were the smallest, next came the wallabies, and the largest was the kangaroo. We got to check all of them out and Jacqueline really enjoyed the kangaroos. She was upset that we had not purchased the food with which to feed them and they seemed to be upset about it also. The kangaroos were just hanging out in the la
wn enjoying their monotonous life in captivity. We left from there and headed back down south before turning and going back north. We were taking faster roads on this day as we had to get back up to Devonport sometime before 6pm tomorrow. We had our first poor experience with a place as we stopped in Campbell Town for lunch. We had an incredibly difficult time finding a spot to eat and then once we did, it took forever for us to get our food, which tasted pretty bad. We also tried to get some money from the ATM and they kept my card because it was worn. This frustrated me pretty good, but luckily they gave it back to me. We happily left there and drove the A1 up north. This was their version of a freeway, but sadly Highway 9 between Zion and La Verkin is a much better road than even their nicest road in Tasmania. We eventually cut west and it took us to the town of Deloraine, where we planned to find accommodation for the evening. We ended up landing at a motel that we just referred to as Settlers. It was a comfortable spot and we were both thrilled to take a shower and get the sand from our backpack out of our hair. We went to Settlers Restaurant which was attached to the motel. The food was really good and it was all made and served in pioneer style from the 1800s. It was not inexpensive, but to have a hearty meal was exactly what we desired. We spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and just hanging out together in the room. In the morning, we got ourselves going early. We drove into town and took care of things on the internet and had some pastries for breakfast. Then we drove out to Mole Creek, which was only half an hour away. This was where the caves were that we were hoping to get in on a to
ur to see. We bought our tickets and took the rainforest walk up to the cave entrance. This was where we saw this huge bright yellow worm. Usually smart people would think that yellow is a good color to warn off predators, so I should probably leave it alone. Instead I touched it and it was really sticky. Later, we found out it was a carnivorous worm, so I felt rather bright for touching it. We wandered on up to the cave entrance where we had to wait for some time before our tour guide showed up. He gave us the usual cave speech about, don’t touch anything, stalagmites and stalactites, etc… and we wandered on into the cave. Even at the entrance, the cave felt unique consid
ering that it had a river pouring out of it. This would be the third cave that I got to go through that had a river, but this one had all these big chunks of rocks from the past when there was major glaciers in this part of the world. The first fun thing he showed us was a giant cave spider. It was huge as it was about the size of Jacqueline’s hand. Maybe I have been on too many cave tours, but they all are the same. We learn about the people who found the cave. We learn how they used to have to use candle light to find their way. We turn of all the lights and experience complete darkness, but with other people around, never complete silence. The formations are crazy with lots of straws coming down from the ceiling and huge stalactites and stalagmites sometimes merging to make columns. We ended the tour with an overlook of a large gorge with a river running beneath us. On the way back, we got to see the glowworms, which were one of the major attractions for us. These are a larval version of a mosquito that hangs from the ceiling. The hungrier they get, the brighter they glow. They eat the adult version of the mosquito which basically either gets eaten or mates and dies. They spend most of their lives as the larval form glowing at the roof of a cave. We were able to turn out the lights and see about a hundred little lights looking like stars on the ceiling. We were not allowed to take pictures, though. We exited the cave after that and Jacqueline somehow convinced me that we needed to go to the wildlife park that was nearby again. This was a different one from Natureworld, but along the same premise. It must be our honeymoon or my constant desire to see my wife happy and smiling. This time she made sure to buy the feed to give to the kangaroos. The first thing that she got to do was hold a wombat. She talked the staff into having someone come out to show her the wombat and let her hold it. Its name was
Nugget and it was a young one, which was good because the adults weigh the same as Jacqueline. This place seemed to be a little trashier than Natureworld, but it was fun to see the Tasmanian devils rip into some fresh road kill. The one exhibit that was nicer was the koala exhibit as it had much more freedom in its eucalyptus habitat tha
n the ones we saw before. We had to wander on quite a bit of land to locate the kangaroos and when we did, they did not seem too concerned with us. Jacqueline made sure to get them to eat, but there did not seem to be too much begging at this place. We had to get out of there by three and it left us with very little time to check into our bed and breakfast, go grocery shopping for our backpack, and drop off the Getz, but we pulled it off. We had to find a place to eat in Devonport and my beautiful bride was in the mood for a pub. When we found the Irish pub, we knew we had the right spot. We got ourselves a beer and ordered the Fisherman’s Platter. This was a meal for two filled with just about any kind of seafood that we could imagine. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, which frankly, I do not think I have ever ordered the most expensive thing on the menu in my life. We ate it all, though, as everything was so good considering that we were so close to the ocean. We cannot get seafood like that in Utah. We walked back to our bed and breakfast, where we spent most of the rest of the evening packing for our trip up to Cradle Valley and the subsequent backpack we would be embarking upon on the Overland Track.
y my style to go check out animals in captivity, but Jacqueline really wanted to learn about all of the animals. So we paid our $16 apiece, not cheap, and we were now in Natureworld. The coolest thing to see was of course the Tasmanian Devil. It looks very little like Taz from the Looney Tunes, but I guess it is close enough considering that Bugs Bunn
y doesn’t look like many rabbits I have seen either. They were funny creatures and they seemed to spend a lot of time running around in circles inside of their cages. We checked out the wombats which were giant hamster looking things. There were many birds around also including many varieties of parrots. We learned the difference between the three levels of kangaroos. Pademelons were the smallest, next came the wallabies, and the largest was the kangaroo. We got to check all of them out and Jacqueline really enjoyed the kangaroos. She was upset that we had not purchased the food with which to feed them and they seemed to be upset about it also. The kangaroos were just hanging out in the la
wn enjoying their monotonous life in captivity. We left from there and headed back down south before turning and going back north. We were taking faster roads on this day as we had to get back up to Devonport sometime before 6pm tomorrow. We had our first poor experience with a place as we stopped in Campbell Town for lunch. We had an incredibly difficult time finding a spot to eat and then once we did, it took forever for us to get our food, which tasted pretty bad. We also tried to get some money from the ATM and they kept my card because it was worn. This frustrated me pretty good, but luckily they gave it back to me. We happily left there and drove the A1 up north. This was their version of a freeway, but sadly Highway 9 between Zion and La Verkin is a much better road than even their nicest road in Tasmania. We eventually cut west and it took us to the town of Deloraine, where we planned to find accommodation for the evening. We ended up landing at a motel that we just referred to as Settlers. It was a comfortable spot and we were both thrilled to take a shower and get the sand from our backpack out of our hair. We went to Settlers Restaurant which was attached to the motel. The food was really good and it was all made and served in pioneer style from the 1800s. It was not inexpensive, but to have a hearty meal was exactly what we desired. We spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and just hanging out together in the room. In the morning, we got ourselves going early. We drove into town and took care of things on the internet and had some pastries for breakfast. Then we drove out to Mole Creek, which was only half an hour away. This was where the caves were that we were hoping to get in on a to
ur to see. We bought our tickets and took the rainforest walk up to the cave entrance. This was where we saw this huge bright yellow worm. Usually smart people would think that yellow is a good color to warn off predators, so I should probably leave it alone. Instead I touched it and it was really sticky. Later, we found out it was a carnivorous worm, so I felt rather bright for touching it. We wandered on up to the cave entrance where we had to wait for some time before our tour guide showed up. He gave us the usual cave speech about, don’t touch anything, stalagmites and stalactites, etc… and we wandered on into the cave. Even at the entrance, the cave felt unique consid
ering that it had a river pouring out of it. This would be the third cave that I got to go through that had a river, but this one had all these big chunks of rocks from the past when there was major glaciers in this part of the world. The first fun thing he showed us was a giant cave spider. It was huge as it was about the size of Jacqueline’s hand. Maybe I have been on too many cave tours, but they all are the same. We learn about the people who found the cave. We learn how they used to have to use candle light to find their way. We turn of all the lights and experience complete darkness, but with other people around, never complete silence. The formations are crazy with lots of straws coming down from the ceiling and huge stalactites and stalagmites sometimes merging to make columns. We ended the tour with an overlook of a large gorge with a river running beneath us. On the way back, we got to see the glowworms, which were one of the major attractions for us. These are a larval version of a mosquito that hangs from the ceiling. The hungrier they get, the brighter they glow. They eat the adult version of the mosquito which basically either gets eaten or mates and dies. They spend most of their lives as the larval form glowing at the roof of a cave. We were able to turn out the lights and see about a hundred little lights looking like stars on the ceiling. We were not allowed to take pictures, though. We exited the cave after that and Jacqueline somehow convinced me that we needed to go to the wildlife park that was nearby again. This was a different one from Natureworld, but along the same premise. It must be our honeymoon or my constant desire to see my wife happy and smiling. This time she made sure to buy the feed to give to the kangaroos. The first thing that she got to do was hold a wombat. She talked the staff into having someone come out to show her the wombat and let her hold it. Its name was
Nugget and it was a young one, which was good because the adults weigh the same as Jacqueline. This place seemed to be a little trashier than Natureworld, but it was fun to see the Tasmanian devils rip into some fresh road kill. The one exhibit that was nicer was the koala exhibit as it had much more freedom in its eucalyptus habitat tha
n the ones we saw before. We had to wander on quite a bit of land to locate the kangaroos and when we did, they did not seem too concerned with us. Jacqueline made sure to get them to eat, but there did not seem to be too much begging at this place. We had to get out of there by three and it left us with very little time to check into our bed and breakfast, go grocery shopping for our backpack, and drop off the Getz, but we pulled it off. We had to find a place to eat in Devonport and my beautiful bride was in the mood for a pub. When we found the Irish pub, we knew we had the right spot. We got ourselves a beer and ordered the Fisherman’s Platter. This was a meal for two filled with just about any kind of seafood that we could imagine. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, which frankly, I do not think I have ever ordered the most expensive thing on the menu in my life. We ate it all, though, as everything was so good considering that we were so close to the ocean. We cannot get seafood like that in Utah. We walked back to our bed and breakfast, where we spent most of the rest of the evening packing for our trip up to Cradle Valley and the subsequent backpack we would be embarking upon on the Overland Track.
1 comment:
Is it okay if I adopt a wallaby?
They are supposed to make great pets!
Jacqueline
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