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!