We stop in at the Barndougle golf course and Keir takes a spin with the marshall around the course. Designed by Tom Doaks, it is rated one of the top 50 courses in the world. It does indeed look epic, but not to be played at this time.
Onwards we head, checking out a couple of wineries in the Pipers Brook region. Tasmania is known for its cool climate wines and Brook Eden, a small family run outfit, is our new favourite.
We cross over the Tamar River Valley at the Batman Bridge (named after the fellow who founded Melbourne, not the comic hero!) and make for Beauty Point where Platypus World awaits us. We've missed the last platypus tour for the day, so we make plans to start the first tour bright and early Monday morning.
Again the skies throw down bucketfuls of rain all night long and appear dark and menacing when we awake. The cold has moved in too. Nothing is going to stop us from our visit to Platypus World, though (especially since it also has friendly echidnas that live there too!).
Platypus and echidna are incredible creatures. Known as monotremes, they both lay their babies by eggs and then nurse them through milk ducts/pores when they hatch.
The platypus are considerably smaller than we expect. Although nocturnal creatures on the "mainland" (as they call Australia here), the Tassie versions are diurnal. We watch the platypus dive in their tanks, feeding and grazing on whatever they manage to dig up with their front webs. They use their back legs mainly for steering themselves in the water. The funny thing is they are very buoyant little creatures and will pop up to the surface if not continuously paddling. They can hold their breath for about 40 seconds or so, but are extremely quick which makes it quite challenging to get a photo of them!
Male platypus have highly poisonous spurs on their back feet, and since you can't tell a male from a female when they are walking or swimming along, they must be picked up by their tails (which store their extra food fat for them — a chubby tail is good!). We learn that platypus eggs hatch after a month and then the mother blocks the babies into the den by building walls when she is out hunting until they themselves are ready to head out into their water worlds. Incidentally, a group of platypus is called a "puggle" (seriously, could there BE a cuter word?!?!)
Again we are surprised by size when we meet the two resident echidnas. These two are much larger than we expect (we later learn from Yolande, our guide, that they are quite... well... chubby). They have a little poke around sniffing us out and gobbling up their bug food mash (yuck!). Echidnas are very clever and can be especially naughty creatures. We enjoy hearing about their many escape antics.
After our tour, we get yet another treat when we stay on to chat further with Yolande. She volunteers to raise baby creatures that are in need (she has raised wallabies, echidnas, bandicoots, you name it!) and at the moment she is raising a very baby wombat whose mum was hit by a car.
She has to hand feed the little fellow (who she has named Google) every three hours. Would we like to have a look-see? Yes, indeed!
It is quite a commitment as she will have this guy until he is two years old (when he becomes able to breed and will demand to be released into the wild again). Yolande is an incredible lady filled with all kinds of great information. We could have a yarn with her for days!
Back on the move, we stop in at Cataract Gorge in Launceston. The rain has swollen the river somewhat, but we are rather underwhelmed with it all and so press on towards the famed Cradle Mountain. The photo below seems to capture our underwhelmedness...
We stop to camp at a free site just around Gowrie Park at the base of Mount Roland where the rain clears at the most opportune time, making up for the underwhelming Gorge as it lights up a fiery mountain sunset.
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