Wed, 3rd June, 2015 Garden Island, Clarence Point (Tasmania Zoo & West Tamar sightseeing)

Frost again. 7 degrees at 7am in the van and only 1.7 degrees outside – a bit chilly!! Another beautiful clear day though. Figured out the weather down here. A high comes over and it is cold and beautiful clear days but a low is cloudy with possible rain but it gets a bit warmer!! Popped my head out the door for a photo of the sun starting to rise.

Headed off to get to the Zoo by 10.30 to watch the feeding of the Devils. Lots of frost everywhere even at 9.30am.

 Very heavy fog near Supply River and all the way to Exeter.

Got to the Zoo at 10am and there was still frost on the fence.

Headed straight to the Devils enclosure. Good information to read. I was amazed they only live about 5 years in the wild.

There are 3 enclosures. A lady was cleaning their area and trying to break the ice on top of their water bowls!! There is a male and female (not related) in here that are two years old. They will be separated shortly as they will be put together later to mate. If they stay in the same enclosure he won’t be interested in her.

Info about the tumour disease killing off the devils.

In the next enclosure there are two males. This one is the older one, 5 years and the other male is 4 years. I asked about their age as it said 5 years and she said they live longer in captivity. They had put the young one with a female but he wasn’t interested so they put him with the older male to toughen him up. It is working because the older one has bark off him and a bleeding ear from fights. His tail is very mangy because of his age, rather than disease.

We could look straight down on them and he would come over and reach up waiting for his feed. There is still frost on the ground here too. Videoed him marching back and forward waiting for his food.

While we waited for the feeding time we checked out Mr Koala soaking up the sun. Each animal as a good fact sign – though I did notice a lot of missing letters off words!!

The lady arrived with a leg and a tail off a kangaroo. This is the younger one, certainly a stockier one.

 He wasn’t very aggressive about trying to take the leg off her though. Took a video. In the end she gave it to him.

The older one grabbed his and ran off. We found him at the other end munching away. Sounded just like Steve munching on his chicken bones!! While I was videoing him eating the younger one came and tried to take his food so I got the barny then the chase as they ran around and around the enclosure with the tail still gripped in his strong jaws. The young one gave up but the poor old guy kept running!!

Frozen water puddles.

Wandered around checking out all the other animals. Of course I took hundreds of photos but have condensed it for the Blog. A couple of Alpaca came over for a chat or to see if I had food – luckily they didn’t spit on me as I didn’t have any food.

They have used all kinds of things for fence posts here – gas cylinders.

Lots of monkeys, swinging and eating.

In a room which didn’t have a light there was an alligator, freshie & saltwater croc, tiger snake, catfish and a lungfish.

Interesting information about the cross-bred dingo now called the Australian Dog.

We have seen lots of wombats but only the one Spotted-Tailed Quoll.

Didn’t see any Eastern Quolls though.

The Meerkats were very entertaining. Two feeding on the log are males 12 years old and the other one is 10 years old. Got some great videos of them doing their ‘sit up and look’ and feeding on worms out of a log. They will also catch any birds and eat them if they land in the enclosure.

These little Cotton-Top Tamarins are so cute too. Got a video of them playing.

 They loved their heated box – I could get in there too as it is freezing out here.

There were hundreds of birds. Three different black cockatoos. Videoed the red-tailed making his repetitive song .

Poor old Joey was born in 1954 and has been adopted by the zoo after his owners passed away. He likes people talking to him.

Interesting fact that the Tawny Frogmouth isn’t an owl but unfortunately another signwriter mishap as it says it is “closely related to, which are nocturnal” – forgot to say what it is related to.

The Swift Parrot was hiding in the leaves. There has been lots of signs about them throughout our travels.

They have so many different types of birds here.

Jon’s Charlie.

The bunnies are in the echidna enclosure because the Tasmanian Echidna hibernates because it has thick fur as well as spines, and they still need to hibernate over winter because their diet is largely based on ants.

Headed off to have lunch at Notley Fern Gorge. It was freezing so we put the kettle on to have Cuppa Soup too but the butane gas cylinder was so cold it wouldn’t work. Steve shook it and rubbed the cylinder and we managed to get a warm drink. Freezing but a nice walk. Decided it was too cold to do the 2 hour walk though and getting too late as the sun sets so early now.

Decided to do the little walk to the tree where the bushranger hid.

As we headed back to Legana we passed a fenced property where there were emus and Bennett’s Wallabies as well as two white ones, like the one we saw on Bruny Island.

Through Legana and following the road north again. Stopped at Brady’s Lookout.

Looking from the south up along the Tamar River to the north.

Zoomed into Mt Barrow, 35km away, then Mt Arthur 25km away.

Back down to the river edge at Gravelly Beach.

Further around we stopped at Swan Point where there is a walk to Supply River Mill or so I thought. After walking for half hour we came out onto the road and found out the mill was further around!! Oops the sign said Supply River Walk – no Mill. Well it was a lovely walk anycase and we need the exercise. It was the Paper Beach – Supply River Walk, 2.5km one way.

Back to the truck then we made a cuppa and sat by the water enjoying the view. Back up to where we walked and then down the road a bit to the carpark of the Supply River Mill ruins which was the first water driven flour mill in Tasmania – built in 1825 by Andrew Charlton and closed in 1889.

Great information plaques along the way.

The mill ruins.

Great view back down the Supply River to where it joins the Tamar River.

Climbed up the track to look down on the mill.

Climbed further up the Cart Track then headed down to follow the water race to the weir.

What's left of the old weir.

Looking up the river to a spike sticking out of the rock.

Steve noticed ice in a rock pool. It is 4.30pm and it was still frozen.

Headed back along the river and back to the van as the sun has set and it is getting colder. Warmed up and rang Anne & Mick to see when we can catch up before we go. Rang Mum and Dad for a chat too.

9pm it was 3.7 degrees outside!!