Leader/Guide: Wendy Pile
Photos: Joby Mitchell
Meeting Place Dubbo Zoo, for a coffee and briefing and for those ever important instructions such as “Don’t feed the animals” & “seatbelts ON”
Our tour guide for the day, member Wendy Pile, acquired the services of an electric cart/ buggy to transport several members willing to walk but more than happy to travel in the buggy, with two members in tow on their bikes.
After obtaining maps and deciding that the Merecats required our immediate attention for posing, we headed to the wombat cave & echidna hideaway!! Just to note some: animals like to sleep during the day, so no amount of persistent tapping on the roof of their hideaway will wake them.
So with the map in hand and Wendy to guide us we took the 6km trail/circuit and encountered some endangered animals. Viewed today were giraffes, African elephant, hippopotamus, otter’s – Oriental small –clawed, Przewalski’s horse, ring-tailed lemur, siamang ape, Sumatran tiger, white rhinoceros, zebra, cheetah, bison & of course the Galapagos tortoise; the ‘baby’ tortoise on show too. An educational experience for all. We then enjoyed a cuppa at the Savannah Lake visitor plaza.
We even saw the new camping experience “Billabong Camp” – this is an all new immersive bush camping experience set amongst the Zoo’s Australian wildlife, where guests spend the night in canvas tents located around a picturesque billabong. This looked great!! Hoping we all get to try this one day, suits large groups also.
The Zoo has “keeper talks”- these are information presentation’s by zoo keepers on specific animals – if you time your visit right you can listen in on these sessions.
Special thanks to Wendy Pile for her contribution and ensuring the members enjoyed the day.
