Tassie Devils and Glowing Caves

After the foggy start to Saturday, the weather cleared up nicely and we were told that we were being taken to Mole Creek to see some Tasmanian Devils. We had only seen one before at Australia Zoo and that was only for a short while before it decided that it was time for another nap. This time we saw lots, they are very strange animals, a weird cross between dogs, cats and bears! They're also nothing at all like the cartoon character, I have no idea where they got that from! The wildlife park we were in was actually very poor and in shocking condition. Happily the animals were all fine and looked very healthy, active and well fed but the place itself looked pretty run-down and disorganised.

On leaving here we went to the incredible Marakoopa Caves, in the shadow of the famous Cradle Mountain. There are 2 cave tours here and the one we went on was a 45-minute tour of the lower chamber featuring 2 underground rivers, reflecting pools of crystals and thousands upon thousands of stalactites and stalagmites. The final part of the tour involved switching off all the lights in the main chamber. Pretty cool in itself as it was pitch black (I mean, cant see your hand in front of your face, real darkness!) but also because after a few seconds you could start to see hundreds of glow-worms on the ceiling! The glow comes from their abdomen to attract food, the more hungry they are, the brighter they are. Megan reckoned that if she was a glow-worm then she'd be the brightest in the cave, always hungry! The whole cave experience was really incredible, the sort of thing that we wouldn't have generally thought of doing by ourselves but we're really glad that it was suggested to us. It was also the first time that Anna-Marie and Des had been there so a good experience all round. Driving back home we passed through lots of English-sounding places; Sheffield, Exeter, Launceston and many others taken straight from an A-to-Z of Britain, very weird!

On Sunday we had a nice lazy start to the day but eventually kicked ourselves into gear and went for a long drive to discover the Tasmanian landscape. We went across the Tamar River (another British one!) and went to one of the most northerly parts of Tasmania, Low Head, where the Tamar River opens out into the sea. From here, the next land is Melbourne! Later in the afternoon we went to the point directly opposite Low Head on the other side of the river mouth, Greens Beach. I'm glad we managed to get out and see some of the fantastic landscape here. It really is a beautiful island which is very sparsely populated giving it a very rugged and natural feel to it. There are only about 493,000 people living here, the same number of people living in all of Tasmania (26,410 sq miles) as live in Portsmouth in the UK (about 30-60 sq miles). That sort of statistic really brings it home how crowded our country really is!

Today, after a morning swim in the spa (attached to the ceiling by a rope so I could swim without going anywhere, weird!) we went out and saw the view from a place called Brady's Lookout. From here we could see lots of the huge Tamar River, rugged landscape, surrounding small towns and vineyards too. Luckily the sun decided to make an appearance for us meaning that although it was cold (we're very far south now, I have realised!) it was at least nice weather!