We decided to visit the Trowunna Wildlife Reserve on the outskirts of Mole Creek. Of course there is an obligatory 'big thing' to be seen here - this of course is a big Tassie Devil marking the entrance, a strange fibreglass construction with, most notably, no hind legs. Trowunna is one of the refuges which are conducting breeding programs for Tasmanian Devils to produce an insurance population of disease free devils. The reserve also cares for injured animals but concentrates on its Devils and also the endangered Spotted and Eastern Quolls, near relatives of the Devil. A guide took us around the various pens and we got to hug a wombat and pat a devil! Feeding time at an enclosure with "retired" female devils was entertaining with the animals showing the best of their less than social behaviour amongst themselves. When there is a wallaby leg to be had, it's every devil for itself!

We had been told about a nice walk to Westmoreland Falls in the mountains behind Mole Creek so we bought a couple of pies and intended to eat them when we had arrived there. We duly found the road, after a wrong turning or two, then saw the sign which pointed, apparently, to the start of the walking track. But we could see no track and so drove a bit further along the dirt road until we became concerned that we might not be able to turn around. We found a turning spot, left the car there and trudged on further up the mountain which got very steep in parts, for the next hour. The track seemed to increasingly have the air of a road not often travelled until finally we could proceed no further such was the denseness of the vegetation on the track itself! So back we came, all the way back to the sign…and there just a short distance away was the start of the actual track to the Falls. Sigh. We had quite lost interest in the Falls by this time. A small turnoff at the bottom of the mountain saw us in a small part of the Mole Creek Karst NP where we finally had the pies we had been carrying for quite a while now. This area is limestone and full of caves and we ventured into one of them a short way until the swift stream disappeared into darkness.

So of course next on the list was to go and see one of the impressive caves open to the public. In the NP, at the Marakoopa Cave, we booked for the next tour. We passed 17 people coming out of the cave on the previous tour, but as luck would have it, we were the only ones on the 3pm tour. Because of this the guide suggested we could do both of the offered itineraries in this cave, rather than just one which is the norm. So we got to see it all with our own private tour guide. Caves like this are truly magnificent things, and along with all the incredible limestone structures we also saw small cave animals like shrimps and spiders, fossils and glow-worms.

Next stop a lookout called the Devil's Gullet. We again climbed high into the mountains until the vegetation changed to distinctly alpine. Another carpark and another sign, but this time we were fine and the walking track was obvious. A quite long and steep walk ended at a viewing platform teetering over the cliff with a 220m drop below. The updraft wind could almost carry you aloft but the view was superb - 180 degrees west encompassing mountains including Cradle Mountain.

A short drive further from the Devil's Gullet finished at Lake McKenzie, a man-made hydro lake. A concrete flume carried water away at an alarming speed down the mountain. It may have been a contender for a night stop but the tiny flies that homed in on us put paid to that idea.

The ranger in the ticket office at the caved told us about a campsite in the NP where we would probably be the only ones. We found it easily and drove in through the narrow rutted track hemmed in by lush temperate rainforest with tree ferns in abundance. On the banks of the Mersey River with a pebbly beach lining the clearest (not to mention coldest) imaginable water, we set up camp, built a fire and settled down for the peaceful but chilly night. And yes we were the only ones there.