One Year to Give: Families at the Zoo

Yay! After a few damp days, to arrive at Dubbo, experiencing simply beautiful weather, was marvellous. The above photo was what we woke up to the first morning (and all of them while we were there).

Dubbo amazed us with it's lush green outlook, and lots of trees and hilly bits. I had imagined Dubbo to be dead flat and with dry, yellowed grass. (Mind you every where we have been has been pretty green and lush so far this year!)And they call it western New South Wales, but it's not more than halfway between the coast and the western border! I guess, for Sydney-siders, it seems a long way away!

We spent part of two days at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Fantastic! What a set-up. The first day we drove around a bit to get our bearings, see a few things and make a plan for when we came back the next morning, on our bikes!! We stayed at the CPark just down the road (2 kms) and there was a purpose made bike track to take us to the zoo. This was the absolute best way to see the zoo!!

Onto the families that were at the zoo:

The Forrest Family

The Barbary Sheep mother and babies

The Giraffe teenage son

Daddy Rhinocerous

Mother and baby Rhino

Mum & Dad Hippo

This is the first time I have actually seen a hippopotamus out of the water!

Dare I say, " three sisters"!! (They did have their butts facing me at one stage, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera!)These were white rhinos. The previous ones were "black"! Easy to tell the difference, isn't it??!

Asian Elephant, cousin to ...

'Cuddles', the African Elephant.
Cuddles is the only African elephant currently in Australia. She was very sociable and kept waving her trunk at us.

I think the tiger is probably a big brother!
The keeper, used a pulley system to put the leg of a kangaroo, deer, or some such thing (probably out of the next yard??), up the pole for it to give it a bit of a challenge.

A daddy lion, and a mummy lion sunning themselves. She is 'out for the count', having a snooze. She looks very comfortable don't you think?

Sisters! P'raps their names are Isabelle & Mia.

He's got to be a Grandpa, this Galapogas Island Tortoise, because they can live for a fairly long time!

She is very 'regal', I think she must be a Grandmother!

Galloping sisters, definitely! These are Przwolski's horses, and it is interesting to read about them, they are one species that they have saved from extinction and returning them to the wild, in their original environment.

These are definitely brothers, for obvious reasons!!?? And they are very mischievous! That must mean they are boys. Right?

These two give the impressions of "Great Aunts". Well...in our family, they would have to be great, great aunts. Or even great, great, great aunts (I'm thinking of my memories of Aunties May & Rit!!).

So lots of family members at one big happy zoo!