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Published: February 9th 2012
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First day in Sydney with Jo (Will’s sister) and we made the most of her jetlag causing her to wakeup at 5am by going for an early breakfast in Darling Harbour. Unfortunately she got to experience a bit of Sydney rain first thing, although as the storm passed over we tucked into our eggs Benedict. Once the rain passed by we made our way to the Ferry at Pyrmont bay and caught the ferry across to Circular Quay where we changed to the ferry for Taronga Zoo. It was a short walk up a hill to the zoo entrance with views back across the Harbour to the opera house, bridge and CBD.
The sun came out not long after we arrived at the zoo, and we made our way around the animal enclosures. Our top 10 animal highlights of the day were:
Gorillas: there was a young baby being looked after by Mum and a toddler who was vying for her attention by being naughty, but the toddler got a few clips around the ear from Mum and soon went off to amuse himself. Unfortunately for a gecko that had made his way into the
enclosure the toddler decided that he looked like a good toy and was chasing after him. Lucky for the lizard he was quicker than the gorilla and made his escape! There was also a huge silverback who was guarding the entrance to the indoor enclosure, controlling who could go in and out.The Koala's whose lives consist of 20 hours of sleeping and 4hours of eating each day! Will could relate to them!!
MeerkatsGiraffes who were being hand fed by the keeper whilst he gave a talk. With Sydney in the background this did make us think of Madagascar!!Elephant, who was proud to confirm to us that he was a male!Sea lions: We went to a Sea lion show where we saw some of the young pups who were being trained as well as some of the more advanced Sealions who were able to wave, dive, jump and even pass a mobile phone between two of the keepers.Hippo, who was fast asleep with a pile of dung stuck to his tail which apparently they swing around to mark their territory!Emu, who Will made friends with in the walkabout enclosureFishing Monkey, who was cleverly
holding onto the tree trunk with his tail whilst he lowered himself to the waters edge to try and retrieve a piece of bread. He was very persistent but unfortunately he failed as we wasn't willing to get his feet wet.Penguins
Once we had made our way around all the animals we took a walk along the coast line from Taronga zoo up to Bradley's Head which has great views of the whole of the harbour. We were accompanied on our walk by the Starship Sydney party boat which was making its way along the coast line and playing the best of the 90's classics. The pathway was a little muddy in places and we were all wearing flip flops which wasn't the most appropriate footwear! We were met by quite a bit of nature on the walk too; Will and Jo C both broke through a cobweb that was covering the width of the path! And there were about 15 geckos which were sunbathing on the path, but they quickly scrambled into the bush when they heard us coming.
After taking some photos we headed back to Targonga and caught the ferry over to
Circular Quay and had a quick ice cream before catching another ferry over to Manly for some dinner and drinks. We had dinner at the Bavarian Beer house which has views out over the harbour. The girls had a strawberry cider and a coupe of lady beers with peach and passion fruit and Will enjoyed a few sunshine beers. We had to move inside for some shade after dinner though as the sun was so hot!
We caught the ferry back to circular quay later in the evening and walked up through the city back to the flat, where it was time for quick showers before collapsing in to bed ahead our early wake-up for the train to the Blue Mountain the next day.
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5knots Metung
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Wow, interesting! I want to visit Toronga Zoo too!