We were the most excited to visit Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and we were not disappointed! Our stay at the Cradle Alpine Retreat was a cute little spot about 20 minutes from the park.
That first night we had an incredible tour at the Devils@Cradle wildlife sanctuary. They are part of a nationwide breeding program to ensure that Tasmanian Devils are not completely driven to extinction by the face cancer destroying the wild population. The sanctuary also rescues quolls and even orphaned wombats. We were welcomed by a recent wombat resident that they are trying to rewild, but Rex won’t go!
Our official tour in the sanctuary started off with a meet and greet with Jeff the joey. Devils give birth to dozens of tiny babies (the size of a grain of rice) but can only fully support four joeys. Jeff was the only surviving joey in his litter and was rather small so the staff stepped in to hand raise him.
We were also there for feeding time for the juvenile and adult devils and quolls. It was pretty amazing to see such cute little creatures chomping right through wallaby bones.
The next day we went on an amazing hike to the summit of Cradle Mountain. Just a few minutes into the hike we saw a wombat and we had fantastic views of the surrounding lakes from Marion’s Lookout.
Then it was off to tackle the summit of Cradle Mountain. My red, red face is only a small indication of how tough it was near the top. Definitely the steepest and scariest rock climb/scramble that I’ve done. Tasmanians do not mess around when it comes to hiking!
On the way back we had another nice view from Crater Peak on the other side of Crater Lake. To cap it off we saw a few wombats right near the boardwalk at the very end of the hike. Adorable creatures.
And now we’re back in Sydney! We were supposed to fly back today but our flight was canceled because this was the visibility from our hotel room this morning vs last couple of days.
The next flight to SFO with available seats is on Tuesday, so we’ve got a few bonus days in Sydney!
Traveling Van with a Man 
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