I went to Canberra and all I saw was a Cheetah fight a snake…
It seems like forever ago, but a few months ago I went to Canberra as part of a State tourism campaign. I got free digs, free food and free experiences. I think it’s important that I disclose this in the post, so you realise I was treated like royalty for the weekend and that’s what my experience reflects. I’m not going to big-up Canberra without merit and I don’t feel obliged to give positive reviews about what I did, just because it was free. I’m sure you’ve seen this done and I’m sure you’ve wanted to kick as many travel bloggers in the face as I have. If I say something is good, it’s because I thought it was good. If I think it was crap, I’d f*king tell ya.
Wake up 6am. Breakfast at 6.45am. Leave Hotel at 7.30am. Destination?
National Zoo & Aquarium.
Humans at the zoo.
Although it’s called the National Zoo & Aquarium, it’s not government run. It’s privately owned by a business man and all their money comes from entry fee’s. It’s the ONLY joint Zoo & Aquarium within Australia. The Zoo normally opens for biz’ at 10am, but it opened especially for us at 8am. Thus, it wasn’t full of bloody tourists. See what I did there? It was also pretty cool that we were going to be meeting some animals. But I had no idea what. Was I going to feed a giraffe? Pat a shark? Let a bear lick honey of my hand? Or have a drinking sesh with a penguin? No, no, no and no. Although the last one would have been sweet as. Penguin’s are smartly dressed f*ckers. Stay tuned for what I got to do.
The zoo was sick. The best way to prove it, let me show you the pictures.
Apparently they don’t have the ‘Compare the Market’ adverts over here.
Black with white stripes.
Now this is a freaking cool animal.
Told ya.
Not all the animals were from Africa. Australia was well represented too.
Don’t Koala’s look cool?
You might even say cute…
Apparently they don’t when they get wet.
And I nearly found this out.
So, what animals did I get to meet? Let me show you…
I fed peanuts to a lemur.
I hugged an emu… Got malted on by a dingo…
And…
Well, let me tell you a story. We walked into the enclosure of this animal and it wouldn’t sit down. It just kept pacing up and down. And this isn’t an animal you can approach while it’s walking around. It was walking up and down the fence, apparently not use to meeting anyone for a couple of hours until the zoo normally opened. Then it jumped back. Something was there. Something that could scare the most powerful animal I’ve ever come into contact with. What was it?
Well, how many zoo keepers does it take to catch a Red-bellied Black Snake? Answer: Five, by my count.
Back to it.
The National Zoo & Aquarium was brilliant. And not just ’cause it was free for me. I could have easily spent so much more time there and I would go back. Obviously the animal experiences were free, but they weren’t too badly priced really. Not that I know how much a watching a Cheetah vs a Snake should cost.
How cool that you got that close to them!
Great giraffe pics! So photogenic!
I did not realise you guys were up so early, though!
Yeah, it was awesome! It was so random as to what animals people got to see too. I was so happy when she said we were going to meet the cheetah.
Haha yeah, it was a VERY early start.
I didn’t see many of the animals (zebra, leopard, tassie devil, emu etc) that you showcased in this post, guess i’ll have to go back
Makes me wonder how big the place was because I thought I saw a fair bit!
Love the story about the snake. Funny how they only want certain animals in each enclosure!
Yeah it was crazy (But awesome)! I’m pretty sure the snake would have won!