On New Year's Eve we arrived at the zoo in the afternoon. It was hot. We sorted out the tickets and drove around. We saw rhinos, elephants, eland, zebra, giraffe and ostrich. After two hours we had driven a total of two km. we missed two thirds of the zoo. A lot of the animals were resting in the shade, but we had fun anyway. We got to see the elephants, at feeding time no less, and heard the lion roaring - but the kids were over walking around by that time.
Dubbo put on fireworks for the first the in thirty years. It was great being so close to the fireworks. They were being let off in a football oval, and we were in the one next to it. It felt like the big fireworks were going off directly over the top of us. I did get covered in some ash. I love the booms, lights and so on. Sophie and Pip, not so much. Sophie wanted to leave after about 8 minutes, (15 min in total) however I told her that we would have to walk closer to the fireworks to leave. Pip was hugging Liz very tightly. But they both enjoyed it, and Pip loved repeating "bang" as the noise that the fireworks made. even a couple of weeks later.
We went home and to bed, with very tired girls. I missed most of the midnight fireworks on tv as Pip wanted a cuddle and some water.
The next morning we were back at the zoo and this time got bikes to go around on. Liz had Pip in a baby seat, and I had Sophie on a tandem. Dubbo is flat, but dragging Sophie around was tiring. We also had a meltdown at the giraffes, when Sophie wanted to draw them, but we only had one pencil - no colours. But she got over it and we went around and saw lots of other animals. It was really good. It was also very hot.
Duncan's Halloween costume
Eland with picture
Camels, Barbary Goats and picture
Otters. They were the favourite. Apparently otters are either asleep or hyperactive. We couldn't decide whether there were four or five otters because we couldn't keep track of which we had counted. There were three that were constantly wrestling / playing / trying to kill each other. This was part of a whole action sequence where they were rolling around in the pool, onto land over rocks and through the streams and bushes. They were manic. Sophie and Pip (and a lot of other kids) were running backwards and forwards trying to keep up with them and were very excited by them. It was great to see them.
Siamang, on their island because they are afraid of water. The baby they had on the island did what I always dreamed of seeing - animals getting it wrong. It tried to swing from one rope to another and missed (it was at ground level). Why does that fill me with schadenfreude?
In front of the galapagos tortoise enclosure (you can tell by the height of the fence). They are soo big.
Stars are every where..
We had a great time in Dubbo, even though it was hot. New Years was a good time to go as the crowds were down and we could go whereever we wanted. Other animals it was good to see - the meerkats, the Nepalese rhinoceres (did you know that Nepal had a plains region?), wombats, kangaroos, koalas, the tiger, turtles and hippopotomas.
And if you are driving there, go from Dubbo Zoo to Molong along Banjo Paterson Way. There are over a hundred sculpture of animals on bikes. It was great, they were amusing, and they kept popping up all over the place. Definitely do it. It is great.
http://www.animalsonbikes.com.au/
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