Today was all about educating the kids. That's what we told them anyway. Just up the road there was a place called Trowunna, which is one of Tasmania's leading Tassie Devil breeding and conservation parks.
We all headed out ready for the feeding tour at 11am and got there with about minus 2 minutes to spare thanks to my lack of understanding of just how long it takes to get 3 kids in the car and ready to go somewhere. I was ready..... Why wasn't everyone else ready for %^* sake.
The guide looked pretty horrified at first when his group suddenly increased from the couple already there to an extra 4 adults and 6 kids who seemed to share the same skill of being able to talk over each other about any conversation and at twice the volume, but soon realised that he actually had some things to say that they were interested in... This of course resulted in about 20 questions a minute being fired off at him, ranging from "how big are wombats", to "where is the Tassie Devil" to "will he poop on you?"
A few other stragglers joined us over the next 10 minutes, each time the guide saying "Welcome, you are just in time", which I feel was code for " can't you read... The tour started at 11...."
We learnt a fair bit about wombats, and the kids all got to pat the baby he was holding, then we moved onto the star attractions - The Tasmanian Devil.
The teeth on these things look like they could strip the flesh off a sleeping child quicker than a baby with a potato peeler.
It didn't seem to stop the kids fighting though with each other to see who could hang the furthest over the fence with their outstretched arms, but as it turns out, these particular ones were quite used to having someone walk around in their enclosure feeding them a small kangaroo like animal that was picked up off the side of the road 4 hours earlier.... Or shot fresh that morning when roadkill is in short demand.
There were 11 Devils in this area and when the carcass was let out the bucket, they swarmed onto it and started gorging themselves like they hadn't been fed for a month. Apparently this is what they do and can eat 40% of their own body weight in one meal. I hate to think what size comes out the other end a few hours later. (And it reminded me to talk to Dylan about his eating habits...)
We had lunch just outside the park and then went back in to check out the kangaroos that inhabited the bottom end of the park. The kids absolutely loved this part and we spent probably another hour or so filming them and just being amongst them, admiring their joeys and interaction with each other... Especially Nicole who was fascinated with, and couldn't put the camera down, when big daddy decided it was time for his afternoon session regardless of what the ladie roos wanted to do.
We finally set back to camp and had our hour or 2 in the creek cooling down, then set off just before 5 to look for a new walking trail in the forest nearby. We found a great spot with some awesome palms and dense forest with a quick 15 minute walk each way that provided a great outlet for the kids to expel some of their energy before tea and bed.
Another big day with some great photo opportunities and some even better memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment