Bicheno, sympathy for the devil

As we were making our way up north, the sky cleared up almost completely, maybe we did break the weather's spell? Our drive of the day, as all distances here in Tasmania, was quite short, but there were enough scenic spots along the road to keep us occupied.

Our lunchbreak with Maria Island in the background

View of the Freycinet Peninsula

Our destination was Bicheno, the 'hub' of the east coast, in reality just a pretty, small town by the ocean with beautiful views, very basic shop, grumpy visitor center, few random penguins and no internet. The lack of internet was becoming quite unnerving at that point as we hadn't updated the blog in ages and we had some planning to do for Sydney and New Zealand. Well, it'd all have to wait apparently ...

Walking around Bicheno

Beware of penguins

A new addition to our collection of curious Australian traffic signs

We chose Bicheno as a stopping point before going to the very much acclaimed Freycinet National Park the next day. National parks in Tasmania are not free of charge, you can choose monthly or annual passes or you have to pay 24 AUD (per car) per single day entry, very very steep for a day of walking! Hopefully Europe does not get inspired and won't start charging outrageous sums of money in national parks because it would ruin us. Although you pay a lot, you don't really get much for your money. There aren't many trails in the park and most of them are pretty short. We chose one of the longest day walks that was supposed to take around 5 or 6 hours, but its second half was so boring and without views that we just ran through it, and were back at the car before lunchtime! At least the weather was nice and I managed to have a swim without freezing to death. And we crossed a path with a big snake that looked harmless but, as we found out later, was the 4th most venomous snake in the world, the tiger snake!

Our new hiking companion

Wineglass Bay from above

... and from up close

I swam at Hazards Beach but only R-rated pictures are available

Highly venomous, and agressive when mating. And guess what, it is mating season now

The day after we wanted to stop by at a nearby wildlife park, East coast Natureworld. We thought we'd be in for an hour or two maximum, but we ended up spending the entire morning in there. The place is enormous, with wetlands and access to the sea and huge forests around. All the animals are either from Tasmania or from the mainland, and some of them are part of a rehabilitation program that'll enable to set them free to the wild again. Others, mostly birds, that are seriously injured, live permanently in the park. You can feed the bold kangaroos or shy wallabies, observe deer, koalas, snakes or parrots, and visit a little farm with pigs, goats or aggressive geese.

Pelicans haven

Wombat - the picture doesn't show but it is actually quite a big fella

Kangaroos know what they want

Spot the little one!

Wallabies are more cautious

The animal that most people come to see here is a more notorious one, the famous Tasmanian devil! To set the record straight, the devil looks nothing like the Warner Bros. would have you believe. It resembles a small black bear with really pointy teeth and the only thing really devilish about him are the grunting sounds he makes when eating. You could mistake him for a wolf then! This largest carnivorous marsupial is in a very real danger of extinction as the population across the island is being decimated by a strange facial tumor. There were more than 250000 devils in Tasmania only 15 years ago, and now the numbers are down to just 30000 animals and getting lower. The Natureworld runs a program separating the devils from the outside world, breeding healthy individuals, until the cure for this highly contagious tumor is found.

They look harmless...

... until they start fighting for the food