Yesterday we had a big one. A day of do good and feel good starting with a trip to Derwent bridge for Queenstown, Zeehan and Rosebery daycare recipients. We picked up at the Queenstown hospital and travelled to the amazing Wall in the Wilderness.
After taking in the wonder we drove to the Derwent Bridge Hotel for lunch where I was pleased to be informed that coach drivers are FOC. 'What a great idea' I thought, as I would of course being the coach driver. It's a little coach with just 14 seats but a coach nonetheless.
It is a good feeling knowing that these people and their carers had such a nice day.
Back to Queenstown, now running late which seems to be becoming the norm lately but hey, y'know when you provide a service for paying customers which is expected to be an enjoyable one ya just can't rush 'em.
Then the dash to Devonport to pick up my bestest so we can get among it, it being the wilderness. A bonus on the way home on our way to Burnie Maccas we drove past a sign twirling bloke advertising $7 pizzas! And, it was good pizza to boot. Nice work mate.
So fair to say at this point we are having a really good day about to round out nicely enjoying a relaxing drive home with our Fatboys pizza and that's just what we were doing. About 10.30pm, nearly home as we drove over the Yolande River bridge then on up the hill we encounter someone riding a bicycle. As we drove around I was thinking 'what a nutter, riding a bike out here at night' when I just glimpsed a Pademelon that had just been hit and killed which was obvious from the still red blood from the poor unfortunate creature on the road. 'I should check that one' I thought, but it looked too big to be a female. Female Pademelons are much smaller than males and the last two we had checked got me a hand full of plums instead of a pouch, let alone a joey.
I thought I might of saw something move, did I? I asked myself.
I drove on, there was no place close to pull off the road anyway but I thought about it as I drove into the Q and couldn't stop thinking about it. I pulled up at The Anchorage, sighed and said 'Azz, you go in and I'll go back and check it out'. I would only have thought about it all night so 'just go check' I told myself. It only took me a few minutes to drive back and by the time I arrived there was this tiny, pathetic little joey sniffing at it's mum. Out with the pillow case, on with the gloves and grabbed the little bugger as it was tragically trying to wriggle back into it's dead mums pouch. As I'm getting disproportionately large hind legs into the makeshift cotton pouch I noticed without doubt this is a little boy Paddy who's unfortunate mum I moved off the road before driving back to town with the bundle on my lap. I could feel the little joey was cold and he would not have lasted much longer alone on the road. He needed warmth which was immediately provided by my lap and tucked under my arm for the rest of the night.
For the best chance of survival this little Paddy needs to get to a care provider, preferably Bonorong, within the next 18 hours. Time to get out the phones, start ringing around and if nobody is going to Hobart well we will have to go. In the meantime there was much cuteness to be adored.
Then our friend Kiah called to say she was heading to Hobart from Strahan and she would take 'Brutus' (No Kiah...Don't name them!...) to Bonorong on the way.
#westernwilds #TasmanianAdventure #pinersminers #MountainHeights #discovertasmania