So-fari So Good

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Day 76

Up early showered and shaved, I am still persevering with my cut throat razor, and am getting the close shave I like, I haven’t cut off an ear or anything yet so all is going well.
I don’t know what I am going to do when I run out of my stock of Taylor’s of Old Bond Street shaving cream, and alum block, I will have to find a supplier some where over here. It probably takes me three times longer to shave this way, but it just seems so worth it, we all have our little pleasantries that make us feel good.

We had a light brecky and headed off to Taronga Zoo here in Dubbo, the weather was cool and cloudy so a good day to see animals active, we had heard good things about this zoo when we were out here last time but never got around to it, so this time it was a must see.

Some one had advised us to hire bikes, as it was a big zoo, so as soon as drove in we parked the truck and did as we were advised. I just picked an old tredder that was roughly the right size, it was a bit rusty, and battered but I thought this would do, to be honest they were all old treader’s so there was not a great selection. I took it around to the kiosk and blew the tyres up a bit and I was set, Caroline had difficulty in selecting a bike, you could not adjust the seat heights so it was difficult to find one of the right size. We only paid $15.00 dollars each so we did not expect much.

We cycled off round the park and I thought It was a brilliant way to see the zoo, just stopping at the animal, jump off the bike and hey presto. I did forget to say these bikes were as old as the hills and seriously battered, and had no brakes on the handlebars, but did have a drum brake that would be applied when you reversed the peddle backwards applying the breaks depending how much pressure you applied. Caroline was not impressed. We did have helmets on, which is law in “New South Wales” and for a change you did not have to pay a fee to hire them.

I was not impressed with the bikes at all, I cannot understand why they don’t use conventional bikes which most ordinary folk are used to. Every time I wanted to stop I back pedalled to slow it down (not that I was going fast anyway, I would not dare!), but because I could not put my feet on the ground I virtually had to jump off the bike while it was still in motion. If you know me then you will know how accident prone I can be, so you won’t be surprised that while I was still trying to get used to the bike I managed to crash into a fence.

Taronga Zoo was huge and had a lot of animals, Indian and African Elephants, lions, Tigers, Rhino - black and white, the only single horned Rhino in Australia, Giraffes, Cheetah, Bongo’s, Zebra, Red and Grey Kangaroo’s, a Wallaroo which is a large rock living shaggy haired Kangaroo that has hairless nose and big-ish oval ears, amazing white handed Gibbons that looked just like Michael Jackson, I thought and I heard a bloke say to his wife “they look like Michael Jackson”, Buffalo, Koala, wombat, Otters, Mained Wolves and Emu’s.

We have no intention to compare Taronga Zoo with Australia Zoo, but this is my personal view. Taronga Zoo is much larger, but just doesn’t have that feeling you get a Steve Irwins Australia Zoo, you do get the feeling that the team at Australia zoo want you to get as close to the animals as possible. One thing concerned us about T-Z (Taronga Zoo) is that we saw a elephant eating a card board box, that would never happen at Australia Zoo. The other thing that surprised us was that lack of keepers around, as we had seen a plastic water bottle that had fallen in to the Bongo enclosure. The Animals did have the benefit of having absolutely huge enclosures, and the bikes and electric carts came at a sensible cost along with the well-priced lunch. I am sure Taronga Zoo hadn’t had to work as hard as the Irwin’s at Australia Zoo as Taronga is a state funded Zoo, and you get that feeling its all about money as it is just an attraction as opposed to highlighting conservation. But it was good and well worth a visit; we would recommend it to everyone, though Caroline may not agree when it comes to the bicycles.

When we handed our bikes back at 2.20pm, we went to grab some lunch and were struck by the little birds that were flying around we were particularly enamoured with this tiny blue bird, that was sitting on a branch with two fluffy brown chicks. We had purchased a book on Australian birds, so when we got back to the trailer, we got the book out and found them to be ‘Superb Fairy Wrens’, and the blue one was the male in his full mating plumage. They were spectacular.

When you purchase your ticket to the zoo, it lasts for 2 days and as the bike hire was for 4 hours, when we gave the bikes back we decided to drive around and catch anything we had missed.

We had a look at animals that had been asleep when we cycled past and both got some great photo’s, we promise not to load anymore Kangaroo photo’s at the moment as I’m sure you are sick of them and will gradually upload a good cross section of the fabulous animals we saw today at this zoo.

I had to go an see the Wombat, we think they only had one but she was a beauty, all snuggled up asleep, having Wombat dreams. What is missing at Taronga zoo is they don’t give the animals names, and we like that, its sort of fun in our world.

We drove out of the zoo at around 4.30 reassured in our souls that we had had a brilliant day and got value for money. We got back to the camp site, Caroline went to rescue the washing she had done earlier which was still hanging on the line, whilst Andy amboiled the kettle and made the tea.

As we had such a hearty lunch we went out early evening to our favourite free WiFi site, of that well known burger chain (not to eat but just sit in the car park), and uploaded “The Honeymooner”, dropped a couple of e-mails and rumbled back to base. I spoke to my sister Jane who called me and we have set up a Skype window at 07.30 Australian time, 20.30 UK time, to phone my mum.

With our obsession with Mini golf, we have found a course close to where we are staying, and as Caroline has thrown the gauntlet down we are off to play tomorrow. I laugh in her face, and stamp on her gauntlet. I have opened a can of whoopass, in preparation

I laugh at Andy laughing in my face and stamping on my gauntlet, we will see who the victor is tomorrow!

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Photos

Wombat
This little lady had just eaten her lunch so obviously giving herself time to digest it and have a snooze, dreaming wombat things.

Buffalo
This was the real daddy of buffalo's!

Koala
Sleepy Boy

Another Koala Picture
Ok promise not to bore you with Koala's instead of Kangaroos, but this Koala was just wedged in the fork of the branches fast asleep

Um! Bongo
I used to be a Bongo caller - 2 little ducks "22"!

Oh - Guess Who
Mrs Do little with Rhino, i think Caroline is actually sizing this little fella up for lunch!

Best Friends..
Do lunch together.....

Who needs...
...hacksaw blades? I can just use my teeth to eat my way out.

Cheetah Run
This little girl is only 6 months old and can already run 50kms per hour!

ooow!
You should see my moon walk!

Otter
Hmmm - these prawns are nice.

Nesting Ibis
These birds scavenge where ever people are eating, they hope for some scraps to drop on the floor.

Walleroo
No - this is not made up this is an actual cross between a kangaroo and wallaby. Shaggy coats, larger ears and bald nose.

Look closely
This wallaby has her joey in her pouch, you can just see the joey looking at the outside world.

Superb Fairy Rain
They are not Superb because we think so, these lovely birds are actually called 'Superb Fairy Wrens'

Playing
The male takes his fair share and looks after the chicks so that mum can look after more offspring.

Little Cuties
This would appear to be a chick although we are not certain, it is just that this one looks fluffier that the others.

Dad
The male Superb Fairy Wren has bright plumage, at the moment brighter blue than normal as it is the mating plumage.