I know it's a little ironic that the photos I've posted today don't have any reptiles in them, but that's because (1) these are cool photos and (2) the reptiles were really hard to photograph! The snakes were all behind glass in darkened rooms and so didn't show up well when I tried to photograph them. The saltwater crocodile (over 5m in length and GRUMPY) spent the entire time at the bottom of his pool. The american alligators were cool but too far away to snap a good picture. And so on and so forth.
The Reptile Park was an interesting place. They suffered a devastating fire in 2000 which wiped out most of their property and their animal collection. When they rebuilt the exhibit buildings, they decided to give the place a whimsical atmosphere. So the indoor reptile exhibits were done up as an ancient Egyptian temple, complete with a temple god and altar stone and more. They also have a big spider exhibit called "Spider World", where they bust arachnid myths, poke fun at the song "Incy Wincy Spider", and let the visitors get up close and personal with some of Australia's deadliest spiders, like the giant, animatronic funnel-web spider shown here. To be honest I found the buildings more than a little tacky, although I could certainly appreciate the work that went into the displays. On the other hand, the Reptile Park is one of the few facilities in Australia that milks venomous spiders and snakes, so that anti-venoms can be produced. It is thanks to the work done at this facility that people no longer die from Sydney Funnel-Web spider bites, among other things. So I guess a little tackiness in their display areas is ok. :-)The outdoor displays were pretty good. There's a big pond with alligators in it, smaller enclosures with Galapagos tortoises, Tasmanian devils, cassowaries and flying foxes. Their big draw is their new saltwater crocodile, who actually just arrived at the Park on Wednesday following the death of their original croc. Their new croc was just over 5m long, and since this was his first day out on display, he wasn't too happy about the whole thing. He spent the entire day at the bottom of the pool in his enclosure. Bill and I chatted with his keeper for a bit as she was casually scooping dead leaves out of the crocodile's pool using a pool skimmer. I was thinking to myself there's NO WAY you'd find me that close to such a big croc! Granted, she was standing on the far side of the safety fence from the croc, but still. We were treated to a display of exactly how fast a croc can move; he had remained completely motionless as the keeper cleaned his pool, but at one point she brushed the skimmer over the top of his head and he LUNGED, mouth agape, about six feet forward and upward in half a second. Let me tell you, the keeper got her net out of the way fast! Before we knew it, the croc was back at the bottom of the pool, completely motionless once more, and if you hadn't seen him move you'd have thought he was made of stone. Yikes.
The other neat thing this place had were the free ranging kangaroos. The picnic area wasall fenced in, and there was a whole group of grey and red kangaroos who were free to roam throughout this zone. When we first arrived, the kangaroos were all surrounded by hordes of other tourists, being poked, petted, and having a zillion pictures snapped. I felt rather sorry for the 'roos. Then one big fella broke away from his gaggle of admiring tourists, bounded past me, and off into a corner of the picnic area. Intrigued, I followed the kangaroo to see where he was going. Turned out that the kangaroos had an area all to themselves, that was fenced off from the rest of the picnic zone. The 'roos could enter and exit this area at will and the tourists couldn't follow them. This made me feel a lot better, knowing that the animals could choose whether or not they wanted to be surrounded by a sea of flashing cameras and prodding hands. Once most of the other tourists had wandered away, I did go over and pet a 'roo myself. I mean, come ON - when will I have that opportunity again?
Today I spent doing laundry and packing up. I finally sewed the Canadian flag patches on all my luggage - I had a bit of a scare when I picked up my luggage in Sydney two weeks ago when I realized that someone else had an identical green suitcase to mine! I wanted to make sure that my suitcases stand out. Let me tell you, sewing patches onto a suitcase is a LOT harder than sewing a badge onto a campfire blanket. I actually managed to snap a sewing needle while trying to push it through the fabric! I am going to have pinpricks and bruises on the ends of my fingers for a while. Thank goodness I eventually found myself a thimble!
My flight to Melbourne leaves at 7am tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up at 5am in order to get to the airport on time (groan). I'm looking forward to meeting up with Jen at last - it feels like it's been forever since I last saw her in August! She'll meet me at the airport and take me across town to where we're living for the next three months. I won't have long to settle in though, since first thing on Monday morning we've got to get up early and head back to the airport, for a week-long adventure to Tasmania. I can't wait! Even if it does mean the first thing I get to do on my birthday is wake up at an ungodly early hour. :-)
