King of the Jungle

Maybe it was because I had just seen The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. For whatever reason, I wanted to see a lion. Steph loves animals of all sorts, so we agreed to plan a visit to the zoo. The Perth Zoo is located in South Perth. For us to get there via public transit would require a short train and bus ride. It takes somewhat longer if you make the wrong transfers.

The correct route is: walk to the Leederville Station -> train to Murray Street Station -> walk to Esplanade Station -> bus to the Perth Zoo.

Ryan's Lion.

However, at the Esplanade Station we read the bus schedule incorrectly and, consequently, boarded the wrong bus. This took us back to the Murray Street Station where we transferred onto another bus which took us back to the Esplanade Station before finally arriving at the zoo. Basically, we were going in circles. With the layover time at the stations, our trip became substantially longer than expected. Despite the frustrating commute, our spirits were still high as we entered the zoo gates. We decided to spend a little extra cash to become ‘Zoo Friends’. This gave us free access to all of the major zoos in Australia over a 12 month period and additional discounts on zoo related events and programs (i.e. we got a seasons pass).

Steph and Ryan at the Perth Zoo.

The zoo was split into 3 major sections: the African Savannah, the Asian Rainforest, and the Australian Bushwalk. Because of my strong desire to see a lion, we tackled the African Savannah first. Due to the mid-day heat, most of the larger animals were quite dormant. Not the spectacular display of nature that we had imagined. It has been awhile since the last time either Steph or I have visited a zoo. What impressed us most about this visit was how well the zoo was designed to give visitors an up close and personal experience with the animals. So even though the animals were tucked away in the shaded regions of their quarters, there was still ample opportunity to snap a close up shot. The best such case, were in fact, the lions; literally asleep at our feet.

A kangaroo!

We had unintentionally left the Australian Bushwalk as the last portion of the zoo to visit. It turned out to be a great way to cap off our zoo experience. Since arriving in Australia we have not had the privilege of seeing any wildlife exclusively native to the area. That is, we had yet to see a kangaroo or koala bear. So it was a pleasant surprise to realize that a large part of the Australian Bushwalk did not have distinct boundaries between animals and visitors. Not only were we going to see kangaroos and koalas, we were going to roam among them! This created a very unique and initially unsettling environment. To put our nerves at rest we had to assume these particular animals were tame or considered a very low threat to humans. At one point Steph and I were amongst a pair of wallabies (essentially miniature kangaroos) engaged in a game of tag!

...having a pool party.

Steph's Penguins...

After a full day at the zoo, we still felt as if we’d only discovered the tip of the iceberg. We were glad to have purchased a yearlong membership as there was much more to experience. Exhausted, we left our zoo friends and discussed what we planned to do upon our return.