Taronga Zoo, because it was free!

Deirdre, Allen and I went to Taronga zoo today because it's been partially sponsored by Sydney Water, hence free to employees of Sydney Water which includes Allen and me.

The weather was fantastic as usual and the zoo is set just north of Sydney central on the harbour side. Once you have caught the ferry across the harbour you can take a cable car up to the top of the zoo and then slowly make your way down.

As soon as we got to the top of the zoo Allen couldn't wait to stick his arm up some poor wombat. I guess it must be part of his medical background and training.

One of the first animals you could see were the koalas. I must admit that they were very cute and looked more like stuffed animals that had been put up a tree for tourists.


I could just imagine Johnny Morris's voice over on them when they moved about. They were quite quick bounding around the floor when going from tree to tree.

You could even have your photograph taken much closer to one for 3$ each.

Most of them were asleep in the trees, but this particular one was quite active. I guess it must have been its turn to entertain us while the others slept.

We also saw wombats which were very cool, if a little on the bulky side. Many of the animals just looked so unique to anything else that I've seen before.

Here's an active one in its burrow. They can apparently reach speeds of up to 40km/h and have been known to take out things by running into them at speed.

There were also the other Australian only animals such as kangaroos of various types, the tasmanian devil (didn't look like the cartoon), and more platypus's than you could shake a stick at.

The zoo also had many other animals which were quite amazing to see up close. I quite liked the tigers and snow leopards.

The tiger was very restless in it's enclosure as it was pacing around and quite often walked right up to the glass screen. You were literally a couple of centimetres away from it at times.

The snow leopard had also recently had two new cubs which were very entertaining to watch. They looked so cuddly and were very playful with each other. Their paws were massive though, even at only five months old they were the size of a medium dog and had paws that looked quite dangerous.

Seeing as the zoo was on the opposite side of the centre of Sydney there were some great views of the city and it would be fantastic to visit there next time with a packed picnic.

This chimp is exactly how tired I felt last Monday when in the car and everyone else was wine tasting. I probably slept just as much as the chimp is doing here too! Hmm, I think I see a likeness to it and me...