Monday
Wake up early and pack a lunch...and then quickly head off to meet the others before embarking on your adventure!
We left Hobart at about 8:30am on our way to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. The park isn't very far out of Hobart and one can probably catch a bus there...if you can work out the timetable and don't mind a bit of a walk. However, I would say that this park is a must for all Hobart tourists. In fact just as we were leaving a bus load of tourists (probably from the cruise ship) were unloading and heading into the park.
So what makes this park better than even the last one I've been to? Well it costs significantly less ($19) and you are given a bag of food, what looks like hamster pellets, to feed the wallabies and kangaroos. Just as we arrived, a tour was starting as well. Inside the gates, a worker was holding a little furry pig like thing...or as we found out, a 9 month old wombat. CUTE!! and even more so as it buried its head into the crook of her arm. It was brought to the centre because its mother had been hit by a car, and it was found (only the size of a jellybean) inside her pouch by the next car.
Baby wombat being snuggled
The guide let us pet him (a coarse but furry feel) and told us he has a flat and hard cartilage plate just around his bum. This is his only protective area so he can defend himself by smashing a dingo's face into the top of a hole if chased.
Wombat enjoying the attention
Somebody misses the guide
Nearby there were also some Tasmanian devils, in a very different setting to the other ones we had met. This time the lady stepped right into their pen, trying to tempt them out by kicking up the area near where they were hiding. If you recall, the last place we went, they dangled some meat over the edge of the cage, dropping it in eventually, and the devils went wild over it. This place was soooo different, as even though she brought meat with her, the devils weren't hungry or interested in eating and totally ignored her.
Hiding devils? What an anomaly!
On to the koalas and the last part of the short little tour. Koalas aren't actually native to Tasmania because they were just too picky! There are about 22 species of the toxic eucalyptus leaves a koala will eat...and only 3 of them are in Tassie, so I guess there wasn't much of a draw to come. While the leaves are poisonous, they also offer a very small amount of protein, hence koalas are usually found sleeping...and when awake, found eating.
Koalas are related to wombats and have a similar face shape, but a much smaller brain... its not too much of a surprise that koalas really aren't that intelligent. They also share that same cartilage plate, but use their's for sitting on!
Making a racket as he claims this tree
The guide put a koala in a tree and let us pet him as he gazed around. Koalas feel a lot more soft compared to a wombat. They also leave your had smelling kinda nice!
Brother koalas greeting one another
After the tour we were free to admire many interesting birds with colourful descriptions. There was also many kangaroos roaming freely and very willing to be fed. Obviously in the wild they are much more jittery...but these protected ones would usually let you come right up and feed them and stroke them a bit. They were very good about softly licking the pellets right out of your hand. There were also a couple unexpected kangaroo races we got a chance to watch.
Yum Yum!
An itchy kangaroo
With food still to give away, we ended our visit near the emu encampment. The emus are a little scary to feed, and definitely lack the social niceties of the kangaroos...but my hand is still intact although they rudely made a bit of a dirt mess on it.
Evil Emu
Still glowing from the awesome experience at Bonorong, we traveled the short distance to Richmond, a historical town.
The Richmond Bridge is Australia's oldest bridge still in use. It's a beautiful bridge which was built by convicts in 1823 using local sandstone bricks. Of course we drove over it in order to walk through the park running underneath.
The Richmond Bridge
Besides the historic buildings, there's also a very popular bakehouse that was brimming with people and makes a perfect stop for lunch. Near to that is the Richmond Gaol (Jail) built in 1825 with some further additions done in the 1830's. For $7 you get a very descriptive pamphlet and are allowed in to check out the jail. It's no Port Arthur, but as a small jail built to house convict labourers, it has a very colourful past and is in rather good condition.
The original section containing the sleeping rooms, and day rooms.
The individual sleeping rooms have been cleared into just one large room....but most of the creepy solitary cells for both men and women still exist. Convicts that had disobeyed a rule were flogged with a Cat-o-nine tails by a flagellator, usually an ex-convict. This was a painful punishment, and if all lashings couldn't be completed at once, the convict was given time to heal until the rest of the lashings could be completed. There is also a story about a very unpopular flagellator accused of aiding people into getting in trouble. One night while a little too intoxicated, he was murdered by being pushed off the Richmond Bridge. Of course he is claimed to haunt the bridge now.
A disobedient woman sitting in the solitary cell, in what would have been pitch black
If there was one thing for a convict to look forward to about the Richmond Gaol, it was the possibility of escape. Many escapes, not all led to freedom, have been documented. In one case, 8 men dug below the floorboards and the foundation to their freedom. In another case stacking the bedding up against the fence and jumping to freedom was possible. Obviously more repairs and better plans were necessary to prevent further escapes.
After spending a good hour in the jail, head on down to the Richmond maze and get lost. It's actually two mazes connected with a passage. Nya and I were content to just make it to the second maze without even finding the middle of the first one. We then wandered back and forth in circles trying to get to the centre of the second. Eventually we ran into the guys and they found their way to the middle. Then the challenge was to get back to the start. Nya and I may have taken a shortcut once...but it didn't speed us up in getting back to the beginning.
Umm so which way is out?
To finish off such a busy day, its only appropriate to take a leisurely stroll around a lake. The Risdon Brook Dam (okay so its not a real lake) is where we went. The lake is right outside Risdon Vale, home to Tasmania's only maximum security prison. Meaning that this time we got a brief view of an operational prison for a change!
The Risdon Brook Reservoir
And that is how you spend a Tasmanian long weekend in Tasmania!
No comments:
Post a Comment