The Big Holiday...... Day 3

We had planned this day to allow time to visit the Western Plains Zoo and then not too long a trip to Moree for the night.

Got to the Zoo early, but they let us in, so didn’t have to hang around too long. Decided that we would have a brief look around the area near the info centre and then slowly drive the 6 km through the Zoo, stopping whenever something interesting turned up.

First stop were the black rhinos that had just been fed. We also listened to a very informative talk by an attendant. What a tragedy it is that the rhinos, all over the world are endangered because of the activities by poachers and the greed and stupidity of those who trade in the products of their “horn”.

Just after the rhinos, we came across a rather unusual sight. Camels were sharing an enclosure with what appeared to be mountain goats or something similar. One camel just stood placidly in the centre of the field while the goats took turns at jumping on its back. They clambered up and down and back again, and that damned camel just stood there, seemingly not a care in the world. Maybe it was just pleased to have the company and attention.

Got lucky and arrived at hippos just on feeding time. The attendants are clearly very respectful of them and they have a very safe way of delivering the food. Three or four hippos then come out of the water and up to the concrete feeding area. I reckon their mouths are even bigger than mine when it comes to munching down all that food.

The plains animals were interesting if a little bland, but the giraffes and elephants were a treat to watch, especially given that they had plenty of space in which to roam. The tigers and lions were pretty boring because, as is their want, they were just lying around, sleeping. We just drove on slowly through the rest because we had promised Chloe lunch at Hungry Jack’s.

From there, after the lunch break, it was on to Moree. A fairly unexciting drive, although we did get to overtake a lot of semis.