Dove Lake at Cradle Mountain in Tazmania. During our two hour visit we experienced rain, snow, sun, and wind! What an amazing place!

On the way to Nella's house we stopped for cows crossing the road.... lots and lots of cows....

Here's a photo of the Tazmanian devil making his famous sacry face. He can open his mouth 90 degrees!

More on Tazmania...

We stayed with the librarian Nella, and her husband Richard who live in a house about 3o minutes outside of Launceston in northern Tazmania. Nella is responsible for making all the connections that brought us here. They VERY generoulsy put all three of us up for 4 days! Their house was out in the county surrounded by beautiful fields of cattle and sheep. An adopted peacock strutted around the oustide and making regular appearances at the windows!

Tazmania was amazing! The highlight of our trip there was a visit to Cradle Mountain to see the endangered Tazmanian Devils. We ere given a private tour at the privately funded research and rescue center, and even got to pet one! This amazing animal is dangerously close to extinction so it was a sobering experience. The man in the photo expertly picked up the devil by the tail (so he wouldn't get bitten) and the devil immediately snuggled into his arm. We witnessed babies playing and adults sunning themselves on rocks, and heard the amazing sounds they make. Shannon descrbed it as kind of like a cross between a fighting cat and a barking dog. It's VERY loud!

We were of course horrified to see a nativity scene along with a Chrsitmas tree and Santa's chair at the mall in Canberra! This would NEVER happen in the U.S.!

Be sure to visit Shannon's blog of our adventure, as she is the true bloogging guru! It's schinag-o-blog.blogspot.com

Just a note. ... This and the previous blog post are dated Sunday, but it's actually Monday here!