Weekend with Wombats

With our weekends in Australia dwindling, we embarked on the last of two driving trips. We headed south for this one to Kangaroo Valley (pop. 847) about two hours from here, according to Google Maps. Google maps didn't know about the terrible accident on Rt 5, so 2 turned into 3. We had some HUNGRY, HUNGRY kids when we arrived and many of the restaurants don't start serving until 6, so we went to the local take away for some burgers and chips (I chose the 1/4 of a chicken, which was very yummy). The locals pointed us to Bendeela Campground for some Wombat spotting. Our torches (yep, that's what I asked for in Kmart earlier in the week, I'm practically fluent) had fully loaded batteries and Charlie was especially anxious to see him a wombat!

Daniel is still in school uniform as we head off through the paddock that the campground attendant pointed us to. It was 82 degrees when we left Sydney and mid-50 when we arrived in Kangaroo Valley, which explains the other mix of summer/spring attire.

Got one in his sights!

Up close and personal! This is just using the regular zoom on my camera, so we were able to get within a few feet of them. I don't really know how to get my camera to just snap a picture without being in perfect focus, so there were missed shots, but we were happy to get a few sweet ones.

Wombat facts: Wombats grow about 3 feel long and between 40 and 70 pounds. They are marsupials, but their pouches face backwards so that when they dig their elaborate underground tunnel systems they don't throw dirt on the baby wombats. "Wombat Stew" is a favorite book in our household. Don't worry, in the end the "clever" dingo gets tricked into NOT eating the wombat. Wikipedia tells us that "When attacked, wombats dive into a nearby tunnel, using their rump to block a pursuing attacker," which sounds like Mike's strategy on the basketball court.

Our fearless trackers!

The poor kangaroos we saw hardly got the time of day/night. Oh well, this was the Wombat's night.