Cradle Mountain

David and a wallaby at Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain is a UNESCO world heritage wilderness in western Tasmania. We spent a couple of days there and really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere (because we were). The scenery is really beautiful in a rugged way. Subalpine Tasmania is a harsh place, but we were lucky to have warm weather and blue skies. One highlight was a five km walk around Dove Lake at the foot of Cradle Mountain. Another highlight was the animals. Sara was very happy that we saw no snakes, which were reputed to be very poisonous but not very aggressive. Instead we saw wallabies (basically small kangaroos), wombats (kind of like a pig or a little bear), quolls, and of course, Tasmanian devils. A friendly wallaby even licked me on the hand (Sara was waiting for me to get bitten and afterwards Jay offered hand sanitizer)! The devils were nasty little animals, but very cool to see. We learned a lot about devil facial tumor disease, which is threatening the species, and the efforts to combat it. Plus we got to pet a young devil. All in all, we really enjoyed our time in the Tasmanian wilderness.

-David

Cradle Mountain

Tasmanian Devils

A Tasmanian Devil