Today is Sallie's actual birthday. Her Daughter Julie & partner, Dale who are on holiday from Perth joined us and we went to Australia Zoo. We went last time we were here but by no means saw all of it also there have been updates since then. This is the Zoo that Steve Irwin and his family founded.
The weather had decided to take a turn for the summer & it was very warm, so we decided to be extremely decadent and hired a Buggy with accompanying guide who drove us to all four corners, so to speak, so we did the lot. Julie & Dale did the Cheetah encounter with photo which was lovely for us to watch and is the accompanying photo to this blog taken by Peter.
I hadn't taken my big camera as it is heavy to cart around especially on a hot day & we didn't know about the Buggy thing before we came. However between us we got some good pics.
The Zoo is heavily involved with conservation and we learned that they are part of the world wide Tiger programme. They are trying to keep the different breeds pure by restricting cross mating between the species. Australia are looking after the Sumatra Tiger, the USA are doing the Bengal Tiger and the UK The Siberian Tiger. I think I have remembered that right. I wonder as we only saw Bengal Tigers at the Zoo. It was a lovely experience watching the Tiger Keepers interacting & playing with the Tigers, encouraging them to jump into the water where you can see them swimming as the side of the tank is glass rather like the Sea Life aquariums.
Besides the Tiger show we watched the 'Crocoseum' show where the Crocs were supposedly showing off their skills. Lets be honest about this, Crocs do what Crocs do, the Keepers are the ones performing!! It was a good show none the less.
In the evening we went to nearby Peregian Beach to a Chinese Restaurant where the food was scrumptious. Not the everything fried in a Wok sort we get around the Keighley area. We all ate far too much but didn't care.