Australian Zoo!

Crikey! Right now I'm at the Australian Zoo, The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's old stomping ground. But before I get into that, here's what happened yesterday.

Tickler picked me up at the burger joint and we got the train into downtown. We made.our way to Queen Street where Mojo Webb was playing a couple of sets for International Blues Music Day. We listened to a couple of songs, then found a nearby Irish pub for a Kilkenny beer and small lunch.

Then we went to the other Irish pub and had another couple of beers while waiting for the music to begin. The young woman was good, but her voice was very muffled by whatever mix she was using on the microphone.
We left there and walked across the bridge to South Bank where they have a noodle market. Gyoza and Taco Rice! Yay, Okinawa!

Back to the house by about 18:00 and we were both pooped, so it was an early night. I finished my book, took a shower, and hit the sack.

She was up and gone at 05:30, and I was right behind her, grabbing an Uber to the Greyhound bus station in town. The mirror-like skyscrapers reflected the sunrise in all its glory.

I grabbed the Greyhound at 07:30 and was at the Zoo by about 08:40. They opened at 09:00 and we were off! Here's what I've seen so far:

- Echidnas burrowed under their enclosure's bedding.
- Asian Small-Clawed Otters playing
- Eastern Water Dragons, Mary River Turtles, Land Mullets and a huge Perentie (Aussie's largest lizard) all sunning themselves
- A decent-sized Komodo Dragon staring at us like we were breakfast
- Rhinoceros Iguanas also enjoying the sunshine
- An Albino Burmese Python large enough to eat a small child
- A smallish Reticulated Python (4 meters small)
- Aldabra Giant Tortoises (I met Jasper)
- More Eastern Water Dragons sunning
- Beautiful Elkhorn and Staghorn Ferns
- Cameron the Crocodile, a concrete replica of how big salties can get in the wild...if allowed
- Koalas!
- Salty Acco and Cassie*
- Salty Agro and Cookie* (Agro, short for Aggressive, is the crock from TV that kept eating Steve's lawnmowers)
- Salty Casper and girlfriend*
- Africa Exhibit: giraffe, zebras, and three rhinos including a youngster. The two zebras were a Grévy's or Imperial Zebra (the largest and most engandeted) and a Plains Zebra
- Meercats!
- 6-year-old William the Cheetah (I met him, too!)
- A Red Panda
- And two Bengal Tiger sisters, where I am now.

So long [for now] and thanks for all the fish. ✌️

* The zoo puts girls in with the boys so they can all do what they would do in the wild and have as normal a life as possible in captivity. Although the females build their nests, the keepers remove and destroy the eggs soon after they're laid.Read more