Kangaroos, Possums and Devils, Oh My!

Yesterday Alisa, the two boys and myself went to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, which was about an hours drive out of Hobart. The  Tasmanian Devils in the wild are afflicted with a contagious cancer which is spread through their saliva. All the Devils in the park are cancer free and they are looking to help support their population.

There were also kangaroos, possums and parrots. Little Eric was NOT a fan of the kangaroos. He would cry and get upset when we spent time with then. There were about 30 kangaroos in  very large field and we could just walk amongst them AND feed them! They are such cute, gentle animals. In the picture I took the baby kangaroo is nursing.

After seeing how sensitive Eric was to the kangaroos,   Alisa and I figured that he wouldn't enjoy Tasmaian devil feeding time. We were wrong! We went the the area where they feed the Devils chunks of meat, and they fight like crazy for it, squealing and playing tug-o-war with the meat. Eric laughed! He thought it was great.

The picture above is of Alisa on their Sailboat, Galatic. More sailboat pics to come next week when we go for a several day sail! I have been spending primarily the evenings on the sailboat with them for dinner. During the day Alisa and the boys and myself are out and about exploring.

This is a view from an overlook along the way to the Devil Conservation Park.

Yesterday we also went to an incredible large outdoor Market which is held every Saturday, Year round! It was phenomenal. The street artists, food, crafts, produce. In the bottom picture is a vintage clothing stand that was part of the fair. It was fun to browse through all the old clothes!

Above you can see the Tasmanian Devils fighting at feeding time. They are ferocious creatures! They only eat dead meat, which is a good thing!

I have been really, really enjoying traveling by myself. This is the first time out of the country by myself since College when I went to visit Ella and Sweden. All of my other trips overseas have been with Patrick. Before leaving, I was a little nervous about going by myself...customs, money exchanging, etc. I had nothing to be worried about. This country is a perfect place to travel to by myself because it is english speaking, and they use dollars and the exchange rate is nearly 1:1. Plus, I'm not really here by myself because I'm with Mike and Alisa.

Unplugging from my cell phone has been lovely and really good. It doesn't work here and I haven't tried to make it work. I have access to my work e-mail, Facebook and this blog, which is all I need. Its been nice to have enough technology to touch base with my family once a day. I think that is one advantage of having vacation here....a non working cell phone!

I'm having the time of my life with Alisa. It has been so fun to really catch up with her and play with the boys and see the country here.

The white Australian wines are amazing. So fruity, smooth and ever evening we enjoy a glass with yummy Brie cheese and crackers.

Zoya