Unfortunately, the magpies in the area joined us in an attempt to steal our food. At one point, 5 of them were threatening to do just that. Someone had left a yellow frisbee on the table, a handy defensive weapon for us!
View from the verandah.
Next morning, we were off in good time with Kevin in the lead. First, we learned a lot about mallet trees. In the early days, the bark was used in the tanning industry, so the trees were extremely valuable:
Mallet bark.
We were also intrigued by the lichen on some of the other trees:
It’s now quite dry in the area, but the lichen survive with dew on the trees.
Next, a few wildflowers were spotted:
Fringe lily and two tiny bee orchids.
Cowslip orchids.
Trigger plants.
Kevin spotted a numbat running along in the bush, about 50 m away. Great excitement all round! It rushed into its hiding place in a hollow log. Kevin shone a torch inside the log and a few people managed to see it: not easy, as you had to lie down to look in. I only managed to see two little white eyes, which seemed to be trembling with fear, perhaps:
After that we stopped for another photo opportunity in an area covered in everlastings:
Close-up of everlastings, or paper daisies.
A group of fringe lilies.
A very unusual white fringe lily.
We had lunch on top of Contine Hill, where a local ranger, Peter Lacy, came to give us a talk about the history of Dryandra. My phone was threatening to run out of charge at this point, so I daren’t take many more photos:
I need to get hold of Kevin’s book!
Someone worked out that Kevin is 88 years old and he is full of energy. I am 9 years younger than him and was flagging before the day was out. Like my phone, I was running out of charge. In the end, I decided not to go on the evening excursion to Barna Mia to see the nocturnal animals in their sheltered enclosure. Annette and I had a quiet evening in front of the log fire instead.
Mandy and Bob (with whom we were sharing Wallaby Cabin) did go and reported back. Mandy does lovely crochet:
The blanket consists of rows of double crochet, with a treble into the row below, every 10 stitches.
Someone had carved one of the Barna Mia creatures on a door stop.
For more about Dryandra, see:
https://dryandravillage.org.au/.
Such an interesting stay. Lots to see; beautiful weather. So glad Dryandra still serves such beautiful memories!! Val
ReplyDeleteLichen was the one dyestuff I would not use, back in my wool dying and spinning days. It makes wonderful colors, but was a primal sin to use, in my opinion. It takes so many years to replace.
ReplyDelete