Top hikes: Walk in the wild at end of (Australia's) world

COCKLE CREEK, Australia -- Lots of things go bump in the night in the vast wilderness of Australia's island state of Tasmania. After dark, kangaroos, wallabies and a host of smaller marsupials such as potoroos, quolls and bandicoots skitter through the forest and across roads, oblivious to the dangers posed by passing vehicles.

On the road to Cockle Creek, a quiet spot at the end of the southernmost road in Australia -- and the jumping-off point for one of the country's most spectacular and demanding walks -- drivers need to be ultravigilant for these nocturnal wanderers, lest they join the roadkill that is the unhappy fate of too much of Tasmania's abundant wildlife.