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Published: June 27th 2015
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Adelaide zoo
This guy was a beautiful specimen though a little too distressed I thought Greetings from Victoria! Yes we are officially back in our home state! And its getting colder and colder..... Brrrr
Before we headed off from the beautiful city of Adelaide, we visited the Adelaide Zoo, just across the road from our digs, amongst the picturesque botanical gardens. Its not the biggest zoo we've seen but for the space they had available, it was pretty good. Apparently their sister zoo, at Manarto, houses all the larger range animals, lions, zebras, giraffes etc.
But we managed to see a fair bit and its a stunning environment. One thing I especially loved was a giant Morten Bay fig that they planted there in 1878. It was a real ripper and formed part of the monkey enclosure!
We visited the meer cats, otters, cassowaries, and hippos. The baboons were their usual untidy selves. The zoo guide told us that Baboons are known as the bikies of the primate world, cranky, hairy and downright nasty! Ha ha suited the lot they had there. The glass wall of the enclosure showed the scratch marks when the oldest baboon had smashed into it trying to get a bloke that had bared his teeth at the baboon!
Adelaide zoo
Yes I'm a handsome lion! They have a few lions there and the two female lions were just lounging around. All of a sudden they became very aggravated and started growling and carrying on. This lady had walked up to the cage and she had 2 little kids. It was pretty obvious that the lions got excited and thought the kids were lunch! The male lion next door started up then! The poor lady couldn't get away fast enough and the older child was really scared and crying! It was pretty amazing to see and just reminded you that these are wild animals and they arent mucking about! We witnessed it with another child a bit later on, so it wasnt a coincidence. And the zoo guide told us later that they do often respond like that with little children! The poor male lion seemed quite distressed, pacing up and down for ages after. He was a beautiful specimen though.
This zoo has 2 giant pandas, which is a little unusual. One was pretty active roaming about his area, and the guide said they plant these bamboo scones around and he knows to go searching for them.
We also foundout that the
Adelaide zoo
Where are those bamboo scones!! zoo has animals that are quite old. Until the recent years they had a flamingo that was at least 84 years old, and we saw the sun bear thats over 30 years old, when 20 yrs is old age in the wild. They must look after their animals very well!
At some stage we began to hear a caucophany of noise coming from the south east asian primates. The guide explained that the Siamangs were currently sharing their area with the white cheek gibbons and they often faced off with this noisy argument. We ventured over and it was amazing! The primates are in a fabulous environment with giant trees that are growing in a really authentic looking space. It looks just like you'd imagine their real home would look. They have a moat you can barely see so it looks like they should just be able to walk out. But the best part was one stance of huge trees there were about 5 black Siamangs and in the other group were the white cheeked gibbons. And they were going crazy at each other! The siamangs puff out their throats and shriek like crazy, the gibbons responding back. They
Adelaide zoo
Yes!!! They always leave one in the hollow log! were swinging crazily though the trees, but keeping away from each other within their own predefined boundaries. They went on forever, like a bunch of wild teenagers, showing off. It was a unique opportunity and probably mirrored what you would see every day in the wild. Fantastic to see. I took video of them but unfortunately cant post that
Anyway soon after we headed off for the long drive to Horsham. It was pretty uneventful. We stopped at Border town for a late lunch. A very nice little town, the birthplace of our very own Bob Hawke! But sadly, like many little towns we've seen on this trip, looking like its struggling a little. A number of closed shops, and homeless man wandering around.
We went over the border into Victoria, without any real notice. There was a sign but we had passed it before we realised. The main thing we noticed, apart from the loss of another half an hour of time, was the roads. They suddenly became very ordinary! Felt like we were riding on a roller coaster! Whats going on there Vic Roads! Worst roads since we've been away!
So we are here in
Adelaide zoo
This panda was very disinterested, didnt turn around at all Horsham and spent a lovely day today with Brett, Karen and the kids. It was one of the grand kids birthday today, Claire, so the day was about cake, presents, pizza and lots and lots of fun and games!
So our Bago Bash is getting very close to the final day. We will head to Warrnambool tomorrow and then home Tuesday. So a final post will be up soon and we will bring this great adventure to an end. I will probably do a final blog to summarise the trip and highlight some of the most memorable parts. Then its back to normality for us with lots of wonderful memories to carry forward with us!
Keep warm!
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