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Deb's Adventures
We woke this morning to pouring rain. We decided we would have to resign ourselves to indoor activities. Our first destination was The Platypus House to see the platypus and echidnas. We watched a 15 minute film about platypuses and then went into the tank area. They really are weird looking creatures. We learned that the platypus and the echidnas are the only species that make up the family of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The platypus is one of the few venomous mammals, the male platypus having a spur on the hind foot that delivers venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. It is not fatal but takes months to recover from.
After viewing the platypus we went into the echidna room. The echidna's are kin to our porcupines in the States. Echidnas are small, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines. They have snouts which have the functions of both mouth and nose. Our tour guide unlocked the door to the echidna room and one of them actually used it’s long snout to open the door. Apparently they are very food driven and when they hear voices outside the door they associate it with being fed. We were able to pet them as they ran around our feet. They mostly ignored us and ate lunch. They were hard to photograph because they never stand still.
We left The Platypus House behind and headed out to do some wine tasting. The Tamar Valley is one of Tasmania’s best known wine areas. We stopped at four or five different vineyards. Our favorite was a vineyard called Marion’s which was owned by a gentleman from San Francisco. He was by far the friendliest person and had the best wine and the nicest vineyard. Wine tasting in Tamar Valley was a very different experience to tasting in the Hunter Valley. Hunter Valley was grandiose and fancy like Napa. A lot of the cellar doors in the Tamar Valley were in people’s garages and sheds. It was like they planted a half acre of vines, made some mediocre wine and opened for business. A couple places we stopped into were nice but some we just drove on by.
We decided to head back to our room and make dinner and watch the cricket final. I made veggie wraps and we ordered a salad and a bowl of seafood chowder from the restaurant to be delivered to our room. Dinner was delicious and accompanied a bottle of Marion’s wine very nicely. We barely stayed awake to see Australia beet Sri Lanka in game one of a three game series.
After viewing the platypus we went into the echidna room. The echidna's are kin to our porcupines in the States. Echidnas are small, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines. They have snouts which have the functions of both mouth and nose. Our tour guide unlocked the door to the echidna room and one of them actually used it’s long snout to open the door. Apparently they are very food driven and when they hear voices outside the door they associate it with being fed. We were able to pet them as they ran around our feet. They mostly ignored us and ate lunch. They were hard to photograph because they never stand still.
We left The Platypus House behind and headed out to do some wine tasting. The Tamar Valley is one of Tasmania’s best known wine areas. We stopped at four or five different vineyards. Our favorite was a vineyard called Marion’s which was owned by a gentleman from San Francisco. He was by far the friendliest person and had the best wine and the nicest vineyard. Wine tasting in Tamar Valley was a very different experience to tasting in the Hunter Valley. Hunter Valley was grandiose and fancy like Napa. A lot of the cellar doors in the Tamar Valley were in people’s garages and sheds. It was like they planted a half acre of vines, made some mediocre wine and opened for business. A couple places we stopped into were nice but some we just drove on by.
We decided to head back to our room and make dinner and watch the cricket final. I made veggie wraps and we ordered a salad and a bowl of seafood chowder from the restaurant to be delivered to our room. Dinner was delicious and accompanied a bottle of Marion’s wine very nicely. We barely stayed awake to see Australia beet Sri Lanka in game one of a three game series.
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