DianaWerribee Open Range Zoo
May 24th 2008 09:47
Link: werribeeopenrangezoo.com
Took my kiddies to Werribee Open Range Zoo and Werribee Park Mansion in Melbourne today. Situated right next to the National Equestrian Centre we had spied into it many times and heard the lions roar, so I promised them the next fine, free day we had I would take them.
True it was a fine sunny day after all that rain last week; free the tickets were not, unfortunately.
The 'safari bus' was brim-full with overseas tourists and wailing babies and stank of diesel fumes which poured in through the open tilted windows each time it paused on route.
Nontheless we got some good glimpses of antelope and deer, bison and buffalo and a massive hippo (2000 kilos? surely that can't be right?).
Further on in the 'plains' (always been my favourite bit, on the banks of the murky Werribee River) two graceful enormous giraffes roamed glidingly around, licking each other absent-mindedly, while the plump zebras kicked and bucked their way ahead of the bus.
My son, who had been panting to see them, was disappointed the white rhinos, far from charging, were lying comotose in the sun. Pity. I was there once with a school trip where one tried to ram the bus with his horn!
Back on dry land we ate our sandwiches and lazily surveyed the two hundred Japanese school children and their teachers who were there on an overseas trip. Cafe was doing a roaring trade.
The areas set aside for the hippos and lions n stuff were most imaginatively done, with marshes, bamboo, rope walks, a sunken barge in the hippo water and attractive trees and grasses.
The kids enjoyed rambling through burrow-like tracks and swaying grasslands.
Pity the animals on view were just so torpid! We thought for one horrible moment the cheetah and dromedary were dead!
Then off to the mansion. This was a different story altogether so will tell it separately.
True it was a fine sunny day after all that rain last week; free the tickets were not, unfortunately.
The 'safari bus' was brim-full with overseas tourists and wailing babies and stank of diesel fumes which poured in through the open tilted windows each time it paused on route.
Nontheless we got some good glimpses of antelope and deer, bison and buffalo and a massive hippo (2000 kilos? surely that can't be right?).
Further on in the 'plains' (always been my favourite bit, on the banks of the murky Werribee River) two graceful enormous giraffes roamed glidingly around, licking each other absent-mindedly, while the plump zebras kicked and bucked their way ahead of the bus.
My son, who had been panting to see them, was disappointed the white rhinos, far from charging, were lying comotose in the sun. Pity. I was there once with a school trip where one tried to ram the bus with his horn!
Back on dry land we ate our sandwiches and lazily surveyed the two hundred Japanese school children and their teachers who were there on an overseas trip. Cafe was doing a roaring trade.
The areas set aside for the hippos and lions n stuff were most imaginatively done, with marshes, bamboo, rope walks, a sunken barge in the hippo water and attractive trees and grasses.
The kids enjoyed rambling through burrow-like tracks and swaying grasslands.
Pity the animals on view were just so torpid! We thought for one horrible moment the cheetah and dromedary were dead!
Then off to the mansion. This was a different story altogether so will tell it separately.
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