You know it's cold when the temperature drops so much that fresh wombat poo results in the wombat's bottom emitting steam. He didn't seem phased in the slightest. As for me, seeing a wombat in the wild was so amazing I didn't care what it was doing! Judging by the deposits of wombat poo everywhere Cradle Mountain is wombat heaven. I now know how to distinguish between wombat poo, wallaby and pademelon poo. Quite an achievement for a city girl.
This wombat was in fact our second wombat sighting. The first being the day before as we walked from our accommodation, via a path to the restaurant for dinner. The wombat was just out of reach, munching happily on some grass. You could hear his teeth tearing chunks of it off. Very loud given there is no ambient noise in the wilderness. The wombat continued doing his thing, quite happy for us to watch him at such close quarters. What I would have given to have my camera with me! With no Optus signal I wasn't even carrying my iPhone. Bummer! For the record, Telstra 's signal was great!
We had our own little pademelon family living beside us. Every time we set foot outside our door, we saw various members of the family. Mum had a joey she was still feeding, even though it was too big to climb into her pouch. The best it could do was sit beside her with its head snuggled into her pouch. Quite beautiful so see nature working so close to hand. These little guys do not seem to mind us humans at all.
The closest animal encounter we had however was the brush tail possum who came to visit. On arrival our room had a wooden bowl containing four red apples within it. On departure the bowl was empty and the only evidence of the apples was one core and two pips - somehow missed in the feeding frenzy.
What happened was this....after dinner, with light rain falling, we decided to test out the hot tub on our veranda. So, with a beautiful view of the stars, no neighbours and the quiet of the bush, we sat for a while, appreciating the night. Some time later, we headed inside, locked up, showered and settled down for the night. At approximately 2.00 am we both woke to hear weird sounds coming from across the room. We got up, put the lights on and there sat the biggest possum I have ever seen. They breed them big in Tassie, much bigger than Brisbane brushies! She was happily sitting on the coffee table, munching on an apple, with apple debri littering the table beside her. So, other than the challenge of encouraging her to go outside, all I could wonder was what had she been doing for the four hours we had been sleeping, and how had we not noticed her sitting there as we came through from the hot tub? Yikes.
We got the door open, and with gentle encouragement from a pillow, and with apple chunks thrown outside the door for incentive she finally moved on and went back outside. She was promptly joined by a juvenile possum who judging by the food stealing techniques on display must have belonged to her. Who else but a mother would let someone take food from their mouth. So, fruit bowl 0, possum 4!
3.4.2013
This wombat was in fact our second wombat sighting. The first being the day before as we walked from our accommodation, via a path to the restaurant for dinner. The wombat was just out of reach, munching happily on some grass. You could hear his teeth tearing chunks of it off. Very loud given there is no ambient noise in the wilderness. The wombat continued doing his thing, quite happy for us to watch him at such close quarters. What I would have given to have my camera with me! With no Optus signal I wasn't even carrying my iPhone. Bummer! For the record, Telstra 's signal was great!
We had our own little pademelon family living beside us. Every time we set foot outside our door, we saw various members of the family. Mum had a joey she was still feeding, even though it was too big to climb into her pouch. The best it could do was sit beside her with its head snuggled into her pouch. Quite beautiful so see nature working so close to hand. These little guys do not seem to mind us humans at all.
The closest animal encounter we had however was the brush tail possum who came to visit. On arrival our room had a wooden bowl containing four red apples within it. On departure the bowl was empty and the only evidence of the apples was one core and two pips - somehow missed in the feeding frenzy.
What happened was this....after dinner, with light rain falling, we decided to test out the hot tub on our veranda. So, with a beautiful view of the stars, no neighbours and the quiet of the bush, we sat for a while, appreciating the night. Some time later, we headed inside, locked up, showered and settled down for the night. At approximately 2.00 am we both woke to hear weird sounds coming from across the room. We got up, put the lights on and there sat the biggest possum I have ever seen. They breed them big in Tassie, much bigger than Brisbane brushies! She was happily sitting on the coffee table, munching on an apple, with apple debri littering the table beside her. So, other than the challenge of encouraging her to go outside, all I could wonder was what had she been doing for the four hours we had been sleeping, and how had we not noticed her sitting there as we came through from the hot tub? Yikes.
We got the door open, and with gentle encouragement from a pillow, and with apple chunks thrown outside the door for incentive she finally moved on and went back outside. She was promptly joined by a juvenile possum who judging by the food stealing techniques on display must have belonged to her. Who else but a mother would let someone take food from their mouth. So, fruit bowl 0, possum 4!
3.4.2013
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