Day 5 of Tasmanian Tour, Tuesday - December 24, 2013

TUESDAY – DECEMBER 24, 2013

BOTTOM LINE:

Day 5 of our tour take us to Wineglass Bay, historic Ross and wildlife sanctuary

BACK STORY:

Getting into the tour bus this morning we were all surprised to find that our driver/guide had decorated the wind shield for Christmas!  Great touch! 


 

Tour bus decorations!

Leaving the coastal village of Bicheno we headed down a forest lined road.  We were all primed to see some wildlife and that we did.  We first came upon a wombat in the wild.  Being a shy animal, it retreated into the forest before anyone could take a picture, but Trent promised that we would see some later at a wildlife sanctuary.

Not too far down the road Trent spotted a Tasmanian Devil that had been killed by a car.  He had to stop and do a little dissection as required by the wildlife service in the area.  Tasmanian Devils are an endangered species.  When one is found in the wild a form needs to be filled out along with samples taken to track them.

Tasmanian Devil found

Although we had a couple of delays, we made it up to the Freycinet National Park early where we began a hike to the top. With the beautiful sunny blue skies, Trent guaranteed a good view of Wine Glass Bay.  As we began the climb we were able to see the beauty of Coles Bay.

Coles Bay

Heart pumping, we paced ourselves to enjoy the views of huge boulder rocks and nature along the well manicured path.  The summit was spectacular and well worth the effort.  The younger folks headed down the path to the beach on the bay.  The sign warned of steep and slippery climbing so we opted to stay at the top and wave to them.  Their trek would add another 2.5 hours of vigorous climbing.

     
Once everyone regrouped, we headed to the town of Ross where a female prison had been.  The signs referred to it as a female factory!??  The historic town was delightful to walk around, grab a fresh scallop pie for lunch and see the second oldest bridge in Tassie

The Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary was our last stop of the day.  A guide took us through the self supported site explaining that it was the only sanctuary for injured or rescued wildlife in Tasmania.  We were able to go from pen to pen seeing and hearing about Tasmanian Devils, Koalas, kangaroos, birds and snakes.  It was very informative and well worth the stop!

Following a short ride back to Hobart, we were dropped off at our hotel about 5pm and said good bye to our tour mates.  It was a wonderful time.  Tasmania met our expectations and aside from the weather, we enjoyed our time very much.

It was Christmas Eve and not much was open so we headed to Shamrock Pub for dinner.  We had a nice meal and some hard cider…something which I’ve never tried before.  Very good!

Back to the hotel, we cleaned up, doing tow loads of laundry and repacking for our morning shuttle pick up.