Payment for Dryandra is $7.50 each a night on an honour basis,   On the first night we went to Marna Mia (it isn’t open everyday so you will need to check with the local council if you would like to book.) Marna Mia is a nocturnal tour. They have about 6 different threatened species enclosed. Foxes and wild cats have taken their toll on the local wild life and Marna Mia help protect and breed the local animals.

We learnt about it though Wiki camps. $20 per person. The presentation while informative lacked life. In our group there were three children and four adults. The children where aged from 7 to 12 and looked totally bored by the talk. After the talk we were given red light torches and food plates with seeds and nuts with some pieces of fruit. We headed out. The first stop wasn’t far, a small clearing, which was circled with logs. We placed the first two plates on the ground in the middle of the clearing and before we had a chance to sit down the locals started to race to the plates. There were 2 Bilbys, some Boodie and Woylie and I think there was a Marli as well oh! and I almost forgot there was a possum. (The possum wasn’t supposed to be there but when there is free food.) What do all these animals look like? Small and furry. One wanted total control over a food plate, (I think it was a Woylie) if any of the other animals came near him, he would smack them one. After about 2 to 3 minutes of defending his plate he started to move it out of reach of the others. It must have been a regular thing as he would back back then pull the plate to him, back back some more and do the some thing. We found out the smack was just a warning sign. It they wanted to fight they lie on their sides and kick with their legs. We saw this happen several times with the one defending his plate. No one was taking his plate from him. We went to 3 other spots to feed the animals but most of the animals came to the first spot. I was pretty impressed with the night. It surprised me how close we got to the animals or should I say how happy the animals were to get close to us if we brought them food.

We stayed 4 nights in Dryandra. The campground is basic with the good old drop toilets. They say there is a camp kitchen there but it was a BBQ under a shelter. Depending how big you rig is or how early in the day you got there if you would get it in. We saw some birds and kangaroos in the evening. We drove around or took our pushbikes out. There is a radio station you can tune into while in the park which will tell you about what you can see. It took a little while to get it right but then we found it very interesting. It is a great place for wild flowers, not that we were there at wild flower season. Dryandra is a lot more. A train used to run thought the land joining Pinjarra to Narrogin. You can still see the remains of the track. You can do walking tours, (we walked the ochre track) and loss yourself in another land.

On our last night there we went up to the “Lions Village”. We had been told that if we went at sunset we would see a lot of wild life. We packed some nibbles (for us. It’s not a good idea to feed the locals) and set up at the side of the oval. The Lions Village was once a town site with a school. Now it is used for accommodation. The nightlife had arrived before we did so we sat and watched the kangaroos. Some magpies came to ask for a feed. I wanted to take a photo of one and held a cracker up to get its attention while looking thought the camera lens. As I am trying to take the photo one of the other magpies swooped down and grabbed the cracker out of my hand. Ofcouse I screamed, not knowing what had happened only knowing something took the cracker and ofcouse Adrian laughed. At sunset some parrots arrived but they keep there distant. We sat until it became dark. Wow, what a great way to end the day.