Saturday 18 August 2012

Our journey home

 DAY FOUR

It was the last day of our trip today and the lovely weather has changed and its now cold and blowing a gale.
The baby was a little temperamental again his morning.
But once she gets going she runs okay.
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On our way home we stopped at Pilliga Pottery.

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Which is miles out in the middle of nowhere.
We had to take the Lotus on a dirt road again.
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I'm not a big fan of pottery, even though I have a few nice bowls.
I don’t like drinking out of pottery mugs I’m more of a fine china girl!
HOWEVER, this stuff was beautiful and I bought a little vase with a blue wren on it.
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We were showered by a confetti of gum leaves on our trip back to Gunnedah where we stopped at the rural museum.
I knew there would be a shed involved in this trip somewhere.
You know your getting old when they have VCRs in a museum.
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Now home again with happy doggies.
Big thanks to Chris & Robyn for organising a great few days.

Until next time, Red heartRed heartRed heart Kim

Thursday 16 August 2012

Up close and personal

DAY THREE

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Up early and we were off for our last bus tour.

This time to meet the animals in their bedrooms before they got put out for the day.

Here I am below, feeding a  giraffe a breakfast carrot.

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Then we met the Lions who slept rather  close to where we did,

some of our party could hear them in the night.

We didn’t hear anything….

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Below is Graham feeding a carrot to a Bongo.

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We met up again with Cuddles the African elephant.

She is housed with 3 other old ladies,

although the others are Asian elephants and  they don’t get along, (like many old ladies) so they are in separate pens.

They are all old circus elephants, some from Stardust some from Bullen's.

I wonder if they miss the sparkles and feathery headdresses!?

Probably not, BUT I bet they remember them.

These days their hobby is painting works of art to sell in the gift shop.

What a great job, being a zoo keeper of lovely things like this!

(I can cope with big poos)

 

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Following our tour, we had a cooked breakfast with an African theme and then back to the lodge to pack up and check out.

(bit of a amusing mishap when we left our torch and chargers behind, but eventually we were reunited)

Then we had some more time to spend in the zoo.

Such a lovely day we took the top off the Lotus and took her into the zoo!

(really, we took the top off as it is just easier for me to get in and out without it,

we put the top on Frostys back seat)

 

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Graham took the great photo of a Cheetah.

Mind you the cheetah was more interested in what was over the fence!

These are our zebra friends from near the lodge,,,

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I loved the Galapagos tortoises. They where all asleep in their house when we got there

and then they had a little parade out into the daylight.

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Easy to see why the sailors picked them up and took them away and ate them,

they move slow but have bizarre undulating muscles/joints.

They have a little baby!

Its about the size of a small saucer.

 

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Goodbye zoo!

I recommend the Zoofari lodge…

 

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Our next stop was Coonabarabran.

A few tips to remember in the future…

  1. When the roofs off it is a full olfactory experience. We must have passed 100 dead roos, and I had lots of imaginings of what would happen to our dainty English car if a Roo landed in the front seat! AND they STUNK! poo
  2. It was freeezing…. we had to stop so I could put on my coat, and gloves etc..
  3. In the word ‘B double’ (truck) the B must stand for either a/ Bully or b/ Bastard. Or maybe both and that is were the ‘double’ phrase comes from. We were just a little gnat for them to swipe and we had a near death experience.

However,we arrived safely (although I was slightly traumatised).

At our next motel we stopped for Graham to check in and while

he was gone I was greeted by a few cats who thought a car without a roof was pussy heaven.

(as do some 50+ men)

 

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Until next time, Red heartRed heartRed heart Kim

On Zoofari!

DAY TWO – at the zoo


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We have had a great day at the zoo and I have scores of photos to share!
To start the day the car didn’t,
…..start that is. But with a push she fired and we were off.
She is a little precious about sleeping outside in the cold.
We arrived at the zoo when it opened at 9am and a group of us hired an electric cart to get around.
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I drove the little buggy! Here are Col, myself, Judy, Peter and Bob
We met the….
Rhinos, this one was a snob,
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the Meerkats, who are very nervy but very photogenic.
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We met the giraffes, the hippos,
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and Cuddles the elephant.
She is the only African elephant in Australia.
And she will be the last as they will not import any more of them.
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We watched the tiger have its weekly feed of Wasaroo. (was a roo)
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We saw the otters at play.

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The otters are very quick and I had to put the camera on sports mode otherwise all I got was photos like below!!
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Then at 2pm we all checked in to the Zoofari lodge.
This is an area within the zoo grounds which has luxury tents.
We also met our tour guide, John, who was to escort us around for the next 24 hours.

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We were in the Rhino tent.
Its great, I love it! Go and look for yourself on the below link..
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Then it was the time for our first tour, the twilight tour.
We had our own little bus and the zoo hired a disabled taxi at their expense
for a lady in our group that couldn’t get up the bus steps.

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We visited more Rhinos. The zoo has had a setback with their
breeding program as they had 4 Rhinos die and they still don’t know why.
We then returned to the cheeky Meerkats.
They are show offs!

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Then to the education centre to see the lizards and snakes.
The old Holden has Perspex on it and is full of lizards.

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We then returned to the Zoofari lodge for pre dinner drinks while looking at the neighbours.
Zebras, kangaroos and rabbits! The Roos and Rabbits are opportunistic squatters.
Our Guide, John, says that there are only 12 rabbits in the zoo, but they move very fast
so that all the ones we are seeing are the same 12 over and over again!
HA HA.
No rabbits in the tigers yard though….
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Then we had a lovely dinner that was part of the package.
I had the scallops, and the lamb rack, but I forgot to photograph the lemon pudding before I ate it!

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Then finally a night tour to see the nocturnal animal and the tigers in their night pens.
We went all the back tracks around the zoo and got rather disorientated.

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Tomorrow we are up early for a before breakfast tour.



Until next time, Red heartRed heartRed heart Kim