TARONGA ZOO

SUNDAY 10th APRIL

  I woke up about 7.00am but did not emerge from the bed until about 8.30am. I shaved and then made three teas and by the time I was underway, Bridie appeared in the kitchen followed not long after by Angela.  Of Rob and Jeannette there was not a sign by the time we set off for Carlingford.  We arrived about 10.30am to find Jingles precariously balanced on the outside of the balcony, potentially risking one of his nine lives. Nick was busy playing with his toys.  He was eventually persuaded to come away and put his shoes on.  Having done so he hugged his mother and seemed reluctant to part from her.  Jane then suggested that she might come part of the way with us to Mossman and go shopping there and meet up with some of her friend.  This went down well with Nick and we all set off.

  We arrived at Taronga where I managed to park on a meter just down from the entrance and had my credit card accepted for payment for all day parking ($12).  On arriving at the ticket desk I asked for three seniors and one junior.  The very nice (and not unattractive) young lady at the counter asked if we had our Senior's ID with us.  I replied that we didn't, and she asked if we were locals and I replied that we were from London.  She then asked if we had any form of ID that showed our age.  Bridie was the only one able to comply with that request by producing her driving license.  The young lady then asked Angela and I our ages.  I erroneously gave mine as 69, which is what I will be in December, and Angela, I suspect very reluctantly confessed to being 65.  The zoo employee accepted our age claims and as she was printing out our ticket, Nick spontaneously piped up that he was a Friend of Taronga Zoo but had forgotten his pass.  She asked Nick his surname which I gave as "Komorowski" and she inquired if his name was "Nicholas".  Having established his credentials, she told us that if we went to the Friends Of Taronga Zoo building outside, they would issue him with a free pass.  This we did, and as a result we all got in for some ninety odd dollars.

 As always there are superb sights to be had as one descends down Taronga, with the Bridge and Opera House and downtown Sydney providing a backdrop.  We went through the reptile house with Nick telling us all about the various lizzards, snakes and reptiles therein.

 We even managed to get a smile out of Nick at one stage, a rare occasion when he sat down, as most of the time he was steaming on ahead of us impatiently waiting for the old fogeys to catch up with him.

 Nana Bridie told him several times to slow down so that we wouldn't lose sight of him as he dashed ahead.

 We had a good look at the elephants paying special attention to the babies.  Nick was desperate to get to the lions and sprinted to the enclosure when it came into sight.  He was equally keen on the tigers.

 The gorillas were not prominent and most of them were actually in the indoor section of the enclosure.

 Half way down, Nick confessed to being hungry, so we stopped off for some lunch.  I'm pleased to say that he ate all of his chicken nuggets, although I have to confess that he didn't polish off all the chips.

 Now of course Angela had no problems in demolishing all of the food that was placed in front of her, and I

 have to say that Bridie finished off her burger.  I had some chips to add to my rice and meat Special of the Day, washed down by a Diet Coke.

 After some considerable checking I finally managed to spot the rare snow leopards, whose colouring very much blended with the background.

 Lo and behold, Nick stopped for another rest as we made our way to the Lower Skytrain station.

 We boarded a coach travelling up to the top, and once there decided to go on another trip, this time a round trip to the bottom and back.  Nick travelled with his grandma in a solo carriage and I accompanied Angela in

another one.

A prolonged visit to the Zoo Shop eventually saw us buying an elephant fridge magnet for "Mummy" and some animal shapes for Nick.  As the afternoon had progressed, so the sky had clouded over.  By the time we were leaving at bout 3.45pm, the sky was quite dark.  We were about 10 metres from the car when the rain started pelting down.  I phoned Jane and discovered she was in a cafe opposite Mossman High School, which we successfully located and picked her up.  She was delighted with the two pairs of shoes she had picked up in the sales at $25 a pair reduced from $250 and $150 respectively (or thereabouts).  We drove them back home to Carlingford and then called in at Carlingford Court for coffees and cakes.  I dropped the girls off at the gaff and got back to Oakhurst some time after 6.00pm.  Rob and Jeannette had had a lazy day and were on the sofa watching TV.  I spent the rest of the evening catching up with my blogs.