Appearance of the Sun and Zoo Visit!

I probably saw more of Sydney in the 1st 2 days of being here than what I saw in the past 2 weeks! From Day 3 of my being here, it started to rain INCESSANTLY!! So the last 3 winters, Sydney experienced drought. The ONE winter that I come here, it has rained so much that the water levels in the dams have risen to unmanageable levels!

But this Saturday, it finally stopped raining and lo and behold! the difficult customer - Mr. Sun - was out shining brightly!

Taking total advantage, planned a full and packed day of sightseeing, first stop being the Taronga Zoo. Now, I am not a big animals person (not unless you count my general love for a friend's dog or some animals that I generally 'like'!), but looking at the promotions, specially the ones of the Kangaroos and Koalas, I was pretty excited!

Took a ferry to the zoo which went around the Opera house (you guessed it! -- everything touristy in Sydney is around the Opera House area!)... It was a lovely day and a lovely ride! Clear, blue sky with just a spattering of clouds, deep blue water, sail boats out on the water... felt like you were in a postcard!

The zoo itself is made on a hill, you enter from the top and then come downhill for each level. To enter, you either take a bus or the cable car.

As soon as I stepped down from the cable car, saw the Koalas enclosure... there were some 4 or 5 but they were so well camouflaged with the color of the trees that it was a blink-and you'll miss them type of a situation! The cutest part was this one Koala was sitting upright on a tree and sleeping! (As the zoo attendant informed us, Koalas actually sleep for 20 hours!)

Next significant stop - The Kangaroo Enclosure! They were much smaller than I expected them to be... Also got lucky and saw a Joey first hanging out and then ducking into its mother pouch! The mother, poor thing, seemed very uncomfortable walking around with the roo's legs hanging out of her stomach!

What was probably the highlight for me was the Giraffe and Zebra enclosure -- 4 Giraffes and 2 Zebras. The Giraffe is an extremely elegant animal... the way it moves, stretches itself... all very graceful. What really caught my fancy was that in all 4 Giraffes I saw, the spots were unbelievably symmetrical and even. There were no jagged lines or any such thing!

Headed next to the section where the lions and tigers were... There were two tigers there - one sleeping on a ledge, the other was at the back of the enclosure. Spent some time standing there, and gradually the number of people who came there also grew, each one willing the tiger to come forward. Almost on cue, the mighty beast decided to walk ahead, and did a full circle of the area. He even stopped at various points in front of the various people, and posed for the camera. He was a complete total show off! -- He was the center of attention, he knew it, and he was loving every minute of it!
The most amazing part though was that he made eye contact several times... a full, intent gaze that met you straight in the eye! Though it was very intense, to me the look said 'I spot lunch'!

Moved on from there to the other parts of the zoo -- saw Wombats, Meerkats, Fennec Fox, Mountain goats (!), and some very hungry red pandas! Also saw a gorilla and a chimp but they weren't really in a very 'social' mood, and kept themselves inside this 'isolation' cell of sorts. As the signage outside that cell indicated, they liked to withdraw from the rest of the clan from time to time, and that's why an isolation cell had been provided.

All in all, Taronga Zoo was a lot of fun and definitely worth the while!

P.S.: Pictures coming up soon!