Narawntapu national park - wildlife paradise

When looking at the brochure of the Narawntapu national park, I thought that .. well. Nice but nothing special: Some beaches, some scrublands, some hills - like in every coastal national park. It was actually a book I was reading

which got me interested in the area. The secret life of wombats is mainly like the name tells - about wombats and people being interested in them. Some like one school boy even that much, that he would crawl into wombat burrows which are just spacious enough for a person to crawl into them but not to turn or so anything else but moving forward on his stomach. Exciting to read, but impossible to imagine .. I get claustrophobic when only imagining the whole thing.

Wombats are marsupials which can gain a length up to 1 m and a height of about 40 cm. They live mostly underground in extensive tunnel systems which they dig. Mostly during dusk, dawn and night they come out of their burrows to feed on grass and herbs. Like several other Australian marsupials they have adapted to hot weather and drought in many fascinating ways like for example their life underground in nice temperate tunnel systems. Other adaptions are the ability to utilize food containing very little nutrients in an extremely efficient way. They also have remarkable ways of saving and "recycling" water and hardly need to drink.
Well, but back to the place: Narawntapu national park has a bit lawn which Woodford described as an Australian Serengeti: You can see lots of kangeroos, pademelons, wallabies and wombats grazing there. Their predators are Tasmanian devils which would appear during the night and try to catch some food ...

visitor centre of the national park

Wallabies and roos ..,now the wombats:

Woodford wrote that they look like little bears. In my opinion they look like giant guineapigs. Fascinating animals..
Australias strange animals also were to be met on the beach or actually in the tidal area of the bay, like those soldier crabs which marched up and down the beach in large numbers:

Ray swimming close to the beach (about in the area I was walking in the water up to my knees a few minutes ago ...)
In another corner of the national park there is a lagoon with various water birds such as black swans. And there are the strangest frogs I have ever heard (did not manage to find and see them tough). Here is my  video of frogswamp (voices), youtube

And  .. well. You shouldn't feed wild animals, I know.. But it was Christmas ...

and the pademelon enjoyed the apple piece too much.

as did the possum the piece of bread. It is also amazing to get to see those animals from close distance.
Well, from now on I try to change my bad manners. New Year's promise ;o)

AND - last but not least: I found another pygmy Drosera species growing in the lawn. Yes, LAWN, no bog or something but a LAWN ( I think I get crazy here .. maybe it's best to leave the country ;-).