… to the Taronga Zoo …

… via the Sydney Harbor EcoHopper, a small ferry/sightseeing boat. We spent Wednesday morning sightseeing in the beautiful Rocks area, visiting art galleries, craft shops, and the fascinating Rocks Discovery Museum. With exhibits focusing on the original aboriginal population, this free museum also has 5 or 6 short films about the area, the building of the Harbor Bridge, and the wooden streets of Sydney. Wood was used as the best possible road surface, and still survives today in parts of Sydney, submerged beneath layers of asphalt. In one small area on George Street road crews relaid a section of wooden road just so it could be viewed by visitors as it was.

The park offered a never-before seen tableau: the backs of the Last Supper participants. Only Judas was missing.

 

The jacarandas are magnificent down by the harbor, turning the ground purple with their falling petals. Nearby a fine feathered friend took a stroll.

 

We also happened on newly-installed lampshades on a side street.

 

The bright, sunny, 90-degree weather lent itself to a visit to the Taronga Zoo; we hopped on one of the small ferries for the 15 minute ride across the harbor.

 

Usually visitors take a cable car to the top of the Zoo and work their way down from the summit to the exit. However, because of high winds, the cable car was out of service, and we had to trudge slowly uphill in search of wild animals.

The Zoo is lovely, but the animals were somewhat sparsely scattered, so there was lots of walking between sightings. We were mostly interested in native Australian animals, and did see several platypuses swimming and kangaroos lolling around in the heat, one of them exposing his, uh, souvenirs to the sun. A koala rested in a treetop.

 

I did make a friend in the gift shop! Other interesting local species were the echidna, looking like a lovable hedgehog, and the emu, who seconds after I snapped this pic, totally disregarded the sign about staying on the path, coming over to check us out. 

 

The Tasmanian Devil exhibit seemed empty, as did other exhibits, some of which were being renovated. We eventually made our way to the exit just as the Zoo closed at 4:30, and caught the ferry back to Circular Quay.

Tired from the day’s heat and walk, we collapsed next door to the hotel at The Basement with a burger and chips, washed down with some local cider. Aahhh!