Pt 2 - Day 21 - Taronga Zoo - Bridge Climb

It continues to rain but, it is not supposed to be too bad today.....yeah right!!!  Anyway, we push on and go ahead with the Taronga Zoo as plannned.  Train once again into Circular Quay, then the ferry over to the zoo.  We have a bad run with public transport today, firstly missing the ferry by seconds and having to wait half an hour for the next one.

This is the bird show on a hill looking back towards the city, a beautiful view.

The zoo is just beautful.  It is on a hill over looking the city.  We took someone,s advice and took the cable car up to the top of the hill first and worked our way down.  This was awesome.  Just like the skyrail at Kuranda but it doens't go for as long.  Not only do you get an amazing view of Sydney, but you get a complete overview of the zoo and get a very different look at their enclosures.

We first head to the "bird show" which was very entertaining and very clever featuring mostly Australian birds.  A Canadian girls gives us the spiel about our native birds, which I thought was a bit strange!!!  The rain continues to drizzle on and off!!!  We then explore all the enclosures looking for monkeys for Cody to see.  The enclosures are great as you can see the animals really well.  There was a family of Gorillas we watched for ages, the infants playing rough and tumble with Dad, looked all too familiar to some scenes from the caravan!!!!


By 2 o'clock it was time for Tori and Glen to head off.  They were booked for the  Sydney Harbour Bridge climb at 3:15.  Cody and Shannae were too young to do this, much to Shannae's disgust, so someone had to stay on the ground and look after them!!!  So Glen and Tori headed off, very excited and a bit nervous, in the rain!!!

Cody, Shannae and I continued at the Zoo for a little longer.  We took in the seal show, the gift shop and were treated to a display by the Bengal tiger and her cub playing together.  It was also time the lion came out to strut his stuff.  After doing the reptile enclosure, where we saw some enormous snakes, we decided to head back to the city.

In the meantime, Glen and Tori had missed the ferry they had intended to get on.  When they did actually catch the right one, they had great difficulty finding the bridge climb through "the rocks" as the map fails to show the different levels of the city, however, they got there on time and proceeded to undergo an extensive safety regime and had to be fitted out with the appropriate attire.

You can just see the people climbing up the side here.

On our way back to the city on the ferry, we could see people climbing up the bridge and based on the time, we think it might have been Glen and Tori, but you can't really tell.  It was raining still, but the climb still continues.  It would have been nice to have some fine weather just for the bit at the top at least, but it just wasn't going to happen today.

So, the rest of us decided to do the Sydney Eye tower, which is the tallest building in Sydney.  At the bottom we first do a 4D movie.  These things are great.  The floor moves, you get wind and water in your face and heat when there is a fire, very clever.  After this the lift goes up at a rate of  7m per second and the tower itself is about 305m tall in total counting the point at the top.  A spectacular view from up there.  We are able to  see people at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the binoculars.

By about 5pm we decide we had had enough of the rain and I get the brilliant idea that we might as well go back to the van, as Tori and Glen aren't scheduled to finish until 6:45.  So off we go catching one train then the next, then as we get off the last train and are walking back to the van in the rain it occurs to me I don't have key, it is with Glen!!!  Brilliant!!!  Luckily there is a tv room so I buy the kids a packet of chips and we go there out of the rain.  A while later we get a call from Tori and Glen who are on a high after their massive climb, they are coming home straight away and Glen texts me to say we are on the train and won't be long.  However, just before our stop, the train vias off in another direction and they end up somewhere else.  Fantastic!!!  We decide to order pizza for tea as it is getting so late.  So finally, at about 8pm we all trudge back to the van, pizza in hand, feet dragging in the dirt, but happy to be home and share stories of our afternoon.  A long day!!!