Another glorious Saturday morning, so we decided to go to the Zoo, as Dean had been wanting to go for ages. So we equipped ourselves with the appropriate summer gear - shorts, flip-flops, sunglasses, suncream and cameras. We got the ferry from Circular Quay which took us straight over to Taronga. The views back to the city were fantastic, but the zoo was even higher up, so we headed straight there.
We're not particularly fans of zoos and didn't know what to expect. The setting is lovely, perched on a hillside with lots of greenery. I think this made it seem more attractive straight away - not as much concrete as you get in the UK. The Chimps were great. There was a lot of play fighting and general noise-making!! Their enclosure had lots for them to do and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. They were fed while we were there with huge chunks of melon - that kept them quiet! There were some sad scenes of despondent, lonely animals like the elephant and rhino. However, the zoo is working hard to improve this by developing part of the site. They are going to create an Elephant Rainforest and introduce some Asian elephants that were born in captivity as well as some other endangered species. The zoo does a lot of conservation work with many places around the world and seems to be doing a lot behind the scenes. It's just a shame that you're not immediately aware of this when you're just ambling around.
The day soon sped by and it was time to go. We noticed the sky get gradually darker and just as we were ready to get on the bus to take us to the wharf, it chucked it down! We got back to the city OK, but then what to do? We weren't really dressed suitably for rain, with no jackets and not even a brolly! We had some exciting times running from one shelter to another, skidding around in our flip flops - they're incredibly lethal in rain! So we just had to go and get a coffee and cake until it subsided. It did eventually and we even made it back to Glebe, but as soon as we got off the bus, the heavens opened again. We hid under the post office porch for 10 minutes, but decided we were going to have to get wet in the end. I'm starting to learn that it's hard to avoid the rain, even when you are prepared. You may as well just surrender yourself to it and enjoy it!!
