Taronga Zoo

Friday:

We went to the zoo yesterday. It's quite a long trip; car, train, train, ferry then a very short bus ride up the hill. About two hours each way. But the ferry ride across Sydney Harbour is fun. Taronga Zoo is on a slope right next to the harbour. The giraffes have excellent views! The bus takes you to the top of the hill and you walk zig zag down to the ferry again. We spent about three hours meandering slowly and watching the animals. It was cool and cloudy, which was nice for walking, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got a bit burned around my collarbone despite sunscreen.

The Komodo dragon is always impressive.

Giraffes with a view of the city across the harbour.

A binturong, otherwise known as a bearcat, from South-East Asia. I've never heard of them except for this solitary one we have at the zoo.

There are some natural-ish new enclosures but still some rather small and dismal old ones. They gradually upgrade all the time. They have guided walks through some of the 'friendly animal' enclosures like lemurs, and there was some kind of tour of the tiger enclosure but with a half hour wait which we weren't prepared to do, and you couldn't see the tiger/s at all from outside which was disappointing. No other big cats at all. I'm sure they used to have lions last time and leopards or something. Actually quite a few animals I remembered from several years ago seemed to be missing. Maybe as they make exhibits larger they have to cut down on which animals they keep. There was an area fenced off where they were working on an African Savannah, something to look forward to next time.

I started Duromine (phentermine) again yesterday. Good appetite suppression, a bit of extra energy. I didn't sleep at all well last night, it might take a few days to get past the insomnia. The dry mouth returned today. At least it ensures I drink a lot!

Royal Easter Show

Friday:

First day of the long weekend, we went to the Royal Easter Show. Country comes to the city!

It was the usual kind of stuff; animals, rides (we didn't go on any, but they were there), showbags, woodchopping, and displays of various foods and arts and crafts. We were all rather taken with the skill of this wood carving. 

Not something I would want in my house, but very realistic!

Walked over 11,000 steps and my feet are a bit sore! I've decided I actually prefer a smaller "show", the Sydney Show is so big you spend half your time walking from one thing to the next, trying to get through the crowds. And because it is over several weeks, the more interesting events are spread out and diluted. In Canberra we could see trick motorbike jumps and jousting and pig races and dog obedience all in one day. Today we sat in the stands and got to see some women being judged on how well they sat a horse, and in another arena poodles were being floofed. Not much on, really. And we kept being blocked from going into animal pavilions because they were about to be taken to the main arena or something. I didn't get to see my favourite cows at all! Overall it was a good day but a bit disappointing in comparison to other Show days I've experienced.

Wildlife Park

Saturday:

To celebrate my niece Emma's third birthday, we all went to a wildlife park. It was mostly Australian animals and farm animals for petting with, rather incongruously, a couple of tigers and a small group of meerkats. I assume they are gradually morphing into a "real" zoo. We had morning tea, wandered around the zoo, and saw a reptile show. It was a beautiful day for it, much cooler than recently but not raining like it has most of the week.

Meerkat keeping watch.

Koala, asleep as usual.

Pass the parcel.

Rather oddly, a pen full of guinea pigs.

Lots of kangaroos resting in the shade, including baby joeys.

Emu hoping my iPhone was edible.

Tiger.

Petting Zoo

Sunday:

Today we had a family trip to Floriade. We parked some distance away so with walking there and a slow ramble around and back to the car it was 3.4 km (in 2 hours). Lovely afternoon.

There was a baby animal petting zoo...

And flowers...

And Nerang Pond (an offshoot of Lake Burley Griffin).

In the morning I watched some gardening being done. I was saving my energy for Floriade (lucky I did, I'm still not 100% and it was very tiring) so I just sat in the lovely sun while Tim dug manure into our vegetable bed ready for spring planting, and the kids did some weeding. Mostly of weeds. A few herbs may have suffered. Time to buy some seedlings!