Dryandra National Park and the Barna Mia Nocturnal Experience

 DRYANDRA NATIONAL PARK & THE BARNA MIA NOCTURNAL EXPERIENCE.

We left Collie and vowed we would return to experience more of the area and to MTB on the amazing trails the town has built for cyclists.

Freinds had told us about Dryandra and Barna Mia so we booked in for the experience. 

For $22 it was awesome and best of all, there was only 4 of us with Shannon the ranger/tour guide.

We saw so much wildlife that night and learnt so much.

The other couple who had booked on said it was the 4th time they have done it...

The experience is within 2 x 5 acre fenced off areas where the animals are free to live without the worry of feral cats and foxes.

2 of the species are not found on the mainland any more due to being wiped out by the introduced species.

The only one the didn't turn up were the Bilbys. Shannon said they hadn't shown up for many weeks but would expect them back in about a month.

The rangers give out special torches with orange/red lenses on them so you can see the animals but don't scare them or ruin their night vision and sensitive eyes.

This proved to be a huge challenge for photos and this is how my first one came out.

As I couldn't use a flash, I had to really push the settings and a ridiculously high ISO to get them clear and with a bit of depth of field.

I changed to B&W and that made it heaps better.

A bonus was 3 possums that turned up with one having a baby on its back.  

We got back to our campsite at Dryandra at around 10:30pm.

The next day we decided to go on a hunt for Numbats. Even though there are only about 300-500 left in the wild, the area around Dryandra is a hotspot for them.

Sadly we didn't see any but had a great 4WD and saw other birds and wildlife.

That night while we were cooking dinner, a cute little Woylie came into our camp. We knew they liked mushrooms and vegetables from Shannon's explanation the night before, so we put some chopped up mushroom and eggplant on the ground and it came straight in.

It spent the next 45 minutes taking a piece and scurrying away with it, only to come back a few minutes later for another.

It was even running under the table and around our feet.

On the way out the next day we saw an Echidna crossing the road so we stopped for some photos.