Dryandra woodland

Today we drove inland to Dryandra woodland. We're staying tonight in a cute (and cheap) little woodcutters cottage in the middle of the woodland, The caretakers of the cottages are an Australian woman and her husband, who is originally from Darlington in County Durham, about 10 miles from where I grew up - small world! On our way into the woodland we saw an echidna, a marsupial similar to a porcupine; we'd wanted to see one since we arrived in Australia but this was the first one we've seen, so we were all very excited. When it heard us, it buried its head in the fallen branches - like a 2-year-old child covering his face with his hands and thinking that nobody else can see him if he can't see them (though to be fair, with a spiny bum like that I wouldn't be too worried about predators attacking my rear end either)! This evening we visited Barna Mia, a protected reserve in the woodland where they've reintroduced some rare marsupials. We did a guided walk here and managed to see some of the endangered animals, including the bilby (4th photo, animal with the big ears), boodie, mara and woylie. Some of them were so funny - like giant cute hamsters who jump around everywhere like kangaroos, they were great to see. We also got to see some possoms (last photo) - not endangered at all (in fact pretty common) but it was the first time we'd seen one and Solana decided that they were her favourite animal of the evening. The stars were amazing tonight too - it is so quiet and dark here, we're enjoying the peace and quiet before we head back to the city for our final night in Australia....Read more