Cruise The World With Us

Wednesday – March 12, 2025

Kelsey has been anxious to take the excursion we signed up for today because she wants to see Tasmanian devils. Well, she got her wish. These creatures are now endangered from Devil Facial Tumour Disease. This is a cancer that is fatal and is spreading through biting. Here is a link for more info on DFTD.

Hobart, Tasmania, is our first Australian port. As such, each passenger is required to have a face-to-face meeting with an Australian security officer and may not return to the ship until all passengers have completed an interview. We had to verify who we were with our passport and cruise ID. Our session was scheduled for 12:45 pm and we completed it quickly. There was a large terminal building where others who had completed the interview were waiting to return to the ship. We decided to have a look around town so stopped at an info station in the terminal where Parry provided a map and directions to a couple things we might like to do.

We set off to find a store that would have Tasmanian devil “stuff” and found the one Parry suggested easily. At some point you’ll see what we got (hint – the shirts all have the word “Devil” on them). As we were walking to the store we saw a couple museums that looked interesting and chose to go to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The guide at the entrance told us to start on the third floor and work our way down.

Third floor was filled with early history of this land – before it was called Tasmania. You may remember from yesterday’s post the person for whom this island was named – Abel Tasman. The history shown in text, pictures and video on third floor explained how the indigenous people had their land taken away and were forced to yield to European way of life and law.

After viewing the items on third floor we took the spiral staircase (shown in media) down to second. This floor showcased the furnishings and lifestyle Europeans brought with them. One of those things was using convict labor. Prior to the name Tasmania, this land was called Van Diemen’s Land. You can read about that in the link and get a sense of why people wanted to disassociate with that name. The last convict transport was in 1853 and in 1856 the land’s name was officially changed to Tasmania.

Down we went to first floor. There we found lots of taxidermy including a couple examples of Tasmanian devils. We took a selfie with one of them. Also on display was a wombat, snakes, birds and insects now native to Tasmania. F.Y.I. The snakes native to Tasmania (tiger, copperhead, white-lipped) are all venomous and dangerous to humans.

We left the museum and headed back to the ship walking along the dock where fishing boats were moored. Not certain but the baskets on the backs of the boats seemed to indicate they fish for rock lobster. We met a couple also walking back who had stopped at a McDonalds in Hobart. I’ve been wanting some fries from there but we haven’t taken the time to stop. In this case I’m glad we didn’t because the couple reported they were disappointed. The food didn’t taste like it does at home!

Our encounter with Tasmanian devils was scheduled to be in the late afternoon/early evening. These are animals that come out when it gets dark. Carmen was our guide and Peter the driver. We boarded our bus and took the 45 minute drive into the hills surrounding Hobart to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. On the way Carmen gave us info about Tasmania and Australia. Population of Tasmania is 500,000 and half those live in Hobart. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world due to the Westerly winds that blow across the ocean. 50% of the worlds legal morphine base materiel (poppies) comes from Tasmania. One of the world’s largest lavender farms is on Tasmania. With the cool climate there are many vineyards which product grapes that take longer to mature – like pinot noir. Finally, there are 50,000,000 kangaroos in Australia – almost double the number of people.

We arrived at Bonorong and were met by the manager of the sanctuary who gave us a brief overview of what we would be doing. Then we picked up food for the roos, broke into smaller groups and with a guide from the sanctuary began to meet the animals.

The first encounter was with lots of forester kangaroos that we were able to feed by putting food in our hands and offering it to them. You’ll see photos and video and Kelsey and Jan doing just that – and this after Kelsey said she didn’t want to feed the kangaroos. By the time her food was gone I think she could have stayed longer. The roos are so gentle. You pet them not on the head or shoulder but by rubbing their chest. Their fur is very soft. The forester kangaroo (a subspecies of the Eastern grey kangaroo) is the most common kangaroo in Tasmania.

I’m not sure of the order in which we saw the animals but have included signs (if I have a photo) and photos of all we learned about. The Eastern quolls were small frisky animals with white spots on their coats to provide camouflage. They were hard to photograph due to the wire mesh of the cage they call home.

Not particularly a big fan of reptiles I did find the blotched blue-tongued lizard interesting. Its skin was smooth and it does have a blue tongue. You’ll see the tongue in several photos and a video where the guild was holding the lizard.

The tawny frogmouth looks like an owl when its eyes are open. If you read the placard in the media you’ll see that many of these birds are frequently hit by cars at night as the birds chase insects illuminated by headlights. We saw three birds in the same enclosure. The guide said that many times the birds like to pretend to be a tree – not moving in the hope that they will be able to catch food more easily.

Next up was an animal that acted like a puppy – full of energy and wanting to play – the bare-nosed wombat. The animal we watched was digging a burrow and running around the enclosure learning the things that will enable the sanctuary personnel to release it back into the wild if it can pass the basic skills tests. It was strange to learn that over a two year period the animal goes from wanting human interaction to rejecting it completely. But that is its nature.

We met a bird who received a letter from Queen Elizabeth II acknowledging the bird’s 100th birthday. The bird is Fred. He is 110 years old now and will be 111 in May. He has outlived three generations who had him as a pet. When the last couple to have Fred reached their 80’s, they asked the sanctuary to care for him. He receives special treatment to keep his feathers healthy and he has a special perch inside to regulate the temperature. He can still bite with great force and continues to lure people closer to his cage to hope for the opportunity to snap at unwary fingers!

Our guide went into a bird enclosure to show us a yellow-tailed black cockatoo with a condition called leucism. This bird did not have any black coloring in its feathers but was all yellow. He also explained that certain of the birds there prefer men with beards to the women and some of the birds will have nothing to do with men.

The final animal we saw, and the one Kelsey had been waiting to see, was the Tasmanian devil. They have a couple devils that were visible today – although one of them wanted to stay in some long grass rather than come out and run around. We were able to get photos of the teeth on both of them. You don’t want to be bitten by a devil – they have tremendous power in their jaws and can crush bones easily.

Following the devil worship we stopped in the gift shop where Kelsey added to her growing collection of stuffed creatures by selecting a devil to take with her. Don’t know the name yet but I’m sure that will come soon.

Click here to view todays video and photos.