CAMPSITE # 73 - Devils at Cradle

Since we had already cheated the Overland Track at the Lake St Clair end, we figured why not continue the tradition? Dove Lake is generally the starting point for those crazy hikers who do the entire Overland Track, all 65 kms of it.

At a roughly 600metres above sea level, it is generally raining at Dove Lake over 300 days of the year. Of the remaining 65 clear days each year, only on roughly 16 days can you actually see Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake. We saw it all right, and we had a warm sunny day and clear blue skies to accompany the stunning views. 
There are a number of different walks that you can do but we were just there for the sight seeing.  We took a short stroll down to the "Boat Shed" to take photos of one of the most photographed tourist destinations in all of Australia... I assume because of how rare it is to get a decent photo on a nice day!!

Tom, once again, spent some time getting a little arty-farty, move over Steve Parish...

During our free National Parks bus ride up to Dove Lake, we were informed about a night time animal spotlighting tour that you can do and possibly see Tassie Devils in the wild. Our ears instantly pricked up, the possibility of seeing a Devil in the wild on our final days in Tasmania would just seal the deal on such a great journey to this little island. So, we altered our plans (of which we didn't have any) and decided to let our guard down and stay at a (dum dum darrrrr) BIG4!!

Considering it was Mum's last night, we certainly couldn't send her home showerless and uncomfortable. Taking into account it's close proximity to such a sought after tourist destination, we were actually quite impressed by the Caravan Park. It is set amongst alot of natural greenery and each site is quite private. As we drove along the driveway, after checking in, we went in search for our allocated campsite. Only to find once we had arrived that someone else was in our site. Hoping to get the other, much larger site adjacent, I returned back to reception to enquire. There I was told that we actually had taken the very last unpowered and/or powered site in the entire park and that they must have made a mistake and double booked. We had already paid and we had already booked in for our night tour so we certainly weren't packing our bags to head off to the next caravan park one hour away. Sometimes, a gentle smile and puppy dogs eyes really can get you places because, for $32 we got...

Yippeeee!!

Tom and I laughed at how before we started this trip we would have called this cabin something along the lines of a 'dive' or a 'shithole' but to us nowadays, it was far from that. Kitchen, electricity, flushing toilets, boiling water for Mum's one-million-a-day-cup-of-tea and one less freezing cold night in a tent for my Mum. The three of us were pretty happy to have been so severely inconvenienced by BIG4 :) 


After cooking up a nice warm meal, we rugged ourselves up in preparation for our night out in the 5 degrees. The bus collected us just before 9pm and we made tracks straight to the first instalment of our evening... night time feeding of the Tassie Devils in the rehab centre called Devils at Cradle. And we even got to have a little pat!!

After our quiet little pat with the 18 month old, we were led outside to witness the feeding of a leg of wallaby into a enclosure of 5 female devils. The noise they make certainly does explain where they got their name from...





We were really glad we visited Devils at Cradle. In total, they care for 19 Devils at this park and prepare those eligible ones to enter the wild.


After the Devils Park, we were looking forward to the really exciting part. When we booked it, the tour operator was selling it to us as though there was a very high to extreme possibility to see a Devil in the wild, and that's what we were dying to do. I know, we'd just been amongst 19 of them at the park but it's just not the same. We just thought it would be incredible to see one in its own habitat roaming free in the wild. 


After just a few minutes of the driver with his handheld spotlight, no brighter than Tom's torch, pointing out the "just another wallaby" "oh, and there's a possum over there", we knew it was money not so well spent. If we knew that we would have just been driving up and down the main road that we'd driven along countless times that day, we would have kept our $25 and gone in the Troopie. Obviously, they can't be held accountable for the fact that we didn't spot a wild Devil as we understand that that's completely out of their control but when we found ourselves perusing the carpark and the dumpsters in the hopes that there may be Quolls scavenging in the rubbish bins... all I could feel was disappointment.

This is what we saw of the wild Tassie Devils..

Site : BIG4 Cradle Mountain

Rating : 12 / 20

Facilities : Free upgrade thanks to double booking saw us with a fully self contained cabin for just $32!! Very convenient spot, located directly across the road for the Visitors Centre at Cradle Mountain.