Kirsten Fogg is a Canadian foreign correspondent and travel writer, who travelled to Tasmania with four other foreign correspondents (Urs Bucher, Joelle Dietrich, Stephanie Gartelmann and Urs Wälterlin) as guests of the annual Brand Tasmania tour.

	The Freycinet National Park trail

Imagine walking along Aboriginal trails on Tasmania's Freycinet Peninsula brushing against the grass-like tentacles of a 600-year old Blackboy or savouring wallaby and venison sausages with a glass of pinot noir and some pepperberry cheese.

For five FCA members, a trip down the east coast of Tasmania was a feast for the senses. The Spirit of Tasmania III offered a different perspective of the harbour as we slipped under the bridge and out to sea. The refurbished boat, with the occasional sign in Greek testifying to a former life, is between a ferry and a cruise ship, with a piano lounge, cinema, bars and a buffet dinner featuring oysters and smoked salmon.

After a rough morning crossing the Bass Strait, we meet Michele McGinity, our host in Devonport. As we head to Launceston through glacial plains, Michele and another guide, Josh Iles, relay stories about novice bushwalkers. It seems a certain foreign minister's wife embraced the camaraderie of bush life full-heartedly, even offering to share her deodorant and wash her guide's shirt.

Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist, holding a baby Tasmanian Devil

At Launceston, we learn about the tumours infecting the Tasmanian Devils and recent concern about illegally imported foxes. Then we head for dinner at Stillwater where we meet the proprietor, Kim Seagram, from the well-known Canadian family. We run through our usual introductions ending with the two `Urs'. ``Once when we were introduced, someone said `Hey everyone! we've got two horses here','' Urs Bucher tells us.)

Kim Seagram swirls a glass of pinot as she expounds on the Reisling renaissance and our taste buds are sated by award-winning cuisine with an Asian influence. With heavy stomachs and light heads we're loaded into the back of a four-wheel drive accompanied by an expert and a gun for some ``fox spotlighting.'' The foxes have more luck than my thumb, a few shreds of which remain in someone's truck door.

Our devil spotting during the five-hour Freycinet walk, is just as unsuccessful, though we do get close. Menna Jones, a devil researcher at the University of Tasmania with her nine-month-old son, Mungo, strapped to her back, spears faeces with a stick and starts divining devil droppings - estimating when the devil was here (last night) and what it ate (wallaby).

Later, our guides explain how the industrious local flora - trigger plants that smack unsuspecting bugs on the back with pollen and a `winged sporidium' with alluring false petals - enlist the help of insects to procreate.

	Menna Jones, a devil researcher at the University of Tasmania with her nine-month-old son, showing us the Tasmanian Devil droppings

Our walk ends along a beach at a lodge built by Tasmania's eco-tourism guru. Over roast beef and SpringVale Pinot Noir, Joan Masterman tells us how she fell into eco-tourism before she'd even donned a backpack. At the same time she maintains a friendly banter with Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist, who's key to the state's devil research, and Menna Jones, who fill us in on the sex lives of devils.

On the way to Hobart, our final destination, we drive behind Nick Mooney, stopping when he does to watch him drag road kill off the tarmac. We're heading to his place to see our first (live) baby devil. The devil is soft and smells like a puppy. He looks cuddly but during his inaugural international photo session his ears start to turn bright purple - a sign he's not enjoying himself.

I can't say I share his sentiments. The smells and sights and tastes of Tasmania were much more than I expected.