Great western wilderness and devils in the wild...

Although Kate was desperate to sand-surf on Henty Dunes, north of Strahan, she took a deep breath and agreed to sacrifice her dreams in order to head to Arthur River and have a shot at seeing some Tassie Devils in the wild. We'd been told of a local character, Geoff King, who collects roadkill and then lays it out in front of a hut on his property in order to attract devils and allow visitors to view them in the wild. It sounded like our kinda thing, so we took the Great Western Wilderness road up through Corinna through the buttongrass plains to wild and windy place called Arthur River. We rang Geoff King who wasn't sure whether he could show us the devils (hadn't seen any for a while) but he said he would call back to confirm. It was a good thing we had decided to stay there for a few nights because Zara spent that night vomiting all over the tent - poor thing (and poor the rest of us...). Z seemed fine by the morning but we spent the day scrubbing down sleeping bags etc, catching up on schoolwork and playing cards. It was actually quite nice to spend a day chilling out. Late in the afternoon we drove down the beach to collect driftwood for the fire, then drove to a fabulous wild place called 'the end of the world' to try and nab a squid. Unbeknownst to us it was a long weekend in Tasmania AND a big surf competition was about to take place at Arthur River - so while we were poking around, our campsite was filling up with massive and noisy groups - a host of new friends for our kids, but a host of new noise and Jimmy Barnes for our once-peaceful nights. Zara made us laugh when she came back from playing her her new buddies and asked us in all innocence why they said 'Mundee' instead of 'Monday'? Sash had his first play with toy guns and came back wanting to 'shoot us dead' - yikes back to puzzle for our little gentle fella.

Finally had a call from Geoff who arranged to pick us up the next evening. After spending the afternoon checking out the surfing talent trying to do cool stuff despite a distinct lack of waves, we rugged up and set out to see some devils. Geoff had been very careful to warn us that it was very likely that we wouldn't see any devils because it was the end of the mating season so they were busy elsewhere. While it was still light, Geoff took us to some aboriginal sites on his property. He had previously run cattle on the property but having developed an awareness about the environmental and cultural significance of sites/plants/animals on his land he took the animals off and has let the land revive. He has also spent years lobbying local government to implement a permit system for the 4WD tracks that run along the foreshore of his property (over shell middens and holes where aboriginal women used to hide in wait for seals to club). He is NOT popular with many people (including out neighbours at the campsite!). As it got dark, we went into Geoff's shack where he gave us plenty of info to read, then cracked open some BBQ shapes for the kids (heaven!) and tasmanian wine and cheese for us adults. There was a big curtained window outside of which was a carcass of a wallaby pinned to the ground. A baby monitor allowed Geoff to listen to any signs of devils approaching the carcass. A couple from Launceston were also there to see the devils and Barb was fabulous at helping the kids do some painting while we were waiting. Then at 9.20pm Geoff poured himself a pinot and pulled back the curtain to reveal a beautoful big devil attaching himself to the carcass. The rest of the night was fabulous - we watched 2 devils feeding for ages. It was amazing to be so close and to watch the whole feeding process. Geoff was very knowledgeable and good company. The kids, while thrilled for about 20 minutes then got restless and so curled up on a bed and Zara read The Lion King to Sasha. At 11pm we tore ourselves away from the window and jumped up on the back of Geoff's ute for a wild ride through his property where we saw wallabies and wombats galore. Fabulous!