There was a promise of Wombats....many wombats....but only as dusk came on would they all come out to feed.
We had tripped out to Narawntapu National Park, from Devonport, to see some wildlife. There were a few animals around as we arrived in the afternoon, the odd snake, wombat and wallaby. The real time to see the animals come out was at dusk, so we carried on out to the beach to have our picnic dinner with the Spences. It was a warmish afternoon with a nice stiff breeze coming off Bass Strait, but not too chilly because of it. The kids had a whale of a time on the beach with so much to be done; digging holes, collecting pippys, and because the breeze was up, we had a go at flying Isaac's stunt kite. It was great fun, but took some short while to master it. There were a couple of occaisions where it went into a death spiral and continued doing loop the loops until it was captured, with some hazard, at low altitude and stopped. On the whole, it was plain sailing.
Dinner having been dispatched, we headed back down the dusty road toward Spring Lawn, and the information centre. On the way we spied a wombat coming out of the bush, so we stopped and backed up to get a good look at him. He seemed to be chanelling the Badger from The Wind in the Willows and said "Hmmmph...company" and disappeared back into the bracken.
Back at Spring Lawn, we saw our first wombat out grazing, and tried to get a little closer. Then Marcella saw it and tried to get a lot closer, at which point, the wombat decided that discretion was called for and also disappeared into the bracken.
Back at Spring Lawn, we saw our first wombat out grazing, and tried to get a little closer. Then Marcella saw it and tried to get a lot closer, at which point, the wombat decided that discretion was called for and also disappeared into the bracken.
Dusk was coming on, and the wombats were becoming evermore numerous on the plain, and we were able to use stealth to come a lot closer and get some photographs of these surprisingly fast, yet, stubby little guys.
It was a beautiful time as the sun set. We really appreciated the peace and beauty of the place where animals just 'get about their business'. The drive home was a little less peaceful, and we drove at 50km/h or less all the way back, because there was so much wildlife out and about. Innumerate wallabys and pademelons were grazing by the side of the road, just waiting for the opportunity to chance their luck by running (or bouncing) the gauntlet, in front of the land rover. Thankfully we made it back to camp with both car and wildlife wholly intact and undamaged.