Tuesday, 21 September
Weather still ditto, although the sun nearly shone!
Today we decided to visit Wang Wang and Funi at the Adelaide Zoo. We had no problems getting to the zoo or even finding a parking space. We then discovered that parking at the zoo costs money – quite a bit of money, in fact. It cost $9.60 for four hours and the machine only accepted coins! Fortunately, a New Zealand tourist had a large pocket full of $1 coins and was quite happy to exchange them for plastic notes.
After paying our admission, in which our concession cards were closely checked against a drivers’ licences (can’t be too careful, obviously), we were allocated a panda viewing time at 10.45 am. The number of viewers in the panda enclosure is very closely controlled, which makes sure that everyone gets a look. The enclosure has been very well designed, both pandas were awake, although Funi seemed to prefer stretching out on her back and having a good scratch.
Adelaide Zoo is a very old zoo and efforts are certainly being made to make the old enclosures much more animal friendly. We were present when the lions were released from their night cages into the daytime enclosure and when we visited the nocturnal house, the squirrel gliders and ringtail possums were being fed. We had some very expensive chips for lunch (cheapest item on the menu) but gave the $3.90 bottle of water a miss, deciding we could wait until we returned to the car and our own supply. Of course, there was the special panda gift shop as well as the normal zoo gift shop, just in case any of the visitors still had some money left! There were also lots of school groups visiting the zoo.
Weather still ditto, although the sun nearly shone!
Today we decided to visit Wang Wang and Funi at the Adelaide Zoo. We had no problems getting to the zoo or even finding a parking space. We then discovered that parking at the zoo costs money – quite a bit of money, in fact. It cost $9.60 for four hours and the machine only accepted coins! Fortunately, a New Zealand tourist had a large pocket full of $1 coins and was quite happy to exchange them for plastic notes.
After paying our admission, in which our concession cards were closely checked against a drivers’ licences (can’t be too careful, obviously), we were allocated a panda viewing time at 10.45 am. The number of viewers in the panda enclosure is very closely controlled, which makes sure that everyone gets a look. The enclosure has been very well designed, both pandas were awake, although Funi seemed to prefer stretching out on her back and having a good scratch.
Adelaide Zoo is a very old zoo and efforts are certainly being made to make the old enclosures much more animal friendly. We were present when the lions were released from their night cages into the daytime enclosure and when we visited the nocturnal house, the squirrel gliders and ringtail possums were being fed. We had some very expensive chips for lunch (cheapest item on the menu) but gave the $3.90 bottle of water a miss, deciding we could wait until we returned to the car and our own supply. Of course, there was the special panda gift shop as well as the normal zoo gift shop, just in case any of the visitors still had some money left! There were also lots of school groups visiting the zoo.
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