Cradle Mountain day 2

We got up kinda early since we had fallen asleep early. We ate oatmeal and made sandwiches again for a later hike. D watched the end of the movie. We went to the visitor center and decided to do another hike. So we went back out, did another rough and steep section to get to Hanson's peak. This one was MUCH harder. There was one section that we needed to use chains mounted in the rock faces to get up. If you fell, you were certainly dead. I mentioned to D at one point that she should watch where she grabbed trees and bushes to make sure she wasn't grabbing spider webs. This freaked her out so she rarely grabbed anything for the rest of the hike. Coincidentally I saw a red backed spider on the trail later in the hike.

The views were incredible and the trails were spectactular. We ate lunch in the Twisted lakes, a small group of lakes with a trail through them. Bob, the bird (a Tasmanian crow/raven) spent some time with us at the top of the peak. They don't seem too afraid of humans and would come within feet of us. Coming down was just as hard if not harder than going up. There were sections with chains again, but going down, I felt alot safer than going up for some reason. We got back to our car, drove to the internet cafe, split a sandwich, and then decided to see the Tasmanian Devils @Cradle. To kill some time, we drove over to the Wilderness Gallery, a collection of photography from the area. They were charging for admission and considering we only had about 15 minutes before they closed, we decided against it. Then we headed over to Devils@Cradle.

Devils@Cradle is a breeding center for Tasmanian Devils. We learned all about them. The guide even brought in Charlotte, a young female that she held and we all got to pet her. Devils are very soft and good tempered, until they eat. She fed a few of them for us to see. They go insane over food. Even relatives snarl, growl, bare their teeth, and even snap at each other. This is evidently part of the reason that this breeding center is necessary. There is a disease called Facial Tumour Disease (or something similar) that is ravaging the Devil population. Once a Devil has the disease, they pass it to their young and all of them will die. It causes a cancerous growth near their mouth and within months, it prevents them from eating and they starve to death. The disease is completely natural and was not caused by any human intervention whatsoever. This breeding center is keeping a small population away from the natural population in the hope that the disease will run its course and eventually this disease free population can be re-introduced to the wild. They're also working with geneticists to determine what is causing the disease and figure out a cure. There have been advances, but curing the entire population of thousands of Devils in the wild is impossible. Especially since they are so elusive. But this center is doing its part and it was cool to see. We bought a stuffed toy Devil for Ayla to help the center financially.