Our second day in Sydney was spent touring the city by double decker bus until the afternoon when we boarded a ferry to take us across Sydney Harbor to the Taronga Zoo. We had reserved a slot at the Zoo’s program where you can spend the night at the zoo, in tents. We were excited to be doing that. The itinerary for the evening was to meet and greet the evening’s staff and then we were shown to our tents. The zoo is situated in a very scenic spot, overlooking Sydney Harbor and downtown Sydney. The setting for the overnight program was the most beautiful one can imagine. In fact, when they designed the area, they built the bathrooms with windows in the showers so that you can look out at the view as you shower. (There are also other showers with no peek-a-boo view!) Then we had a delicious dinner and then headed for an afterhours tour of the zoo. We were able to see tigers, zebras, giraffes, mountain goats, and other animals that were out and about at night time.
On the ferry to the Taronga Zoo.
This is the view from the back of the ferry that took us across the harbor to the Taronga Zoo.
View from tent area at Taronga Zoo.
When we were shown to our tents, this was where everyone stopped before even going in to their tent. From here, the tents are immediately behind. Ours was to the right and behind this overlook.
View from our tent!
This is the view we had from our tent. It was such a gorgeous view that Tony didn’t want to close the tent. We ended up sleeping with the screen closed and zipped (we were warned not to leave it unzipped because critters would definitely find their way into the tent) so we could see this view all night long.
Dawn over Sydney
This was the view when the sun began to come up the next morning. I did take night time pictures but because I had only a point and shoot and it was extremely windy (and freezing cold), they are too blurry to share. But the view from our tent was absolutely gorgeous!
This overnight at the zoo thing was something my kids and I, especially Tony, had wanted to do at other zoos over the years but we weren’t ever able to do it. On this trip, Tony made sure we got to do all the things on our list. This one was a big hit, even with a sleepless night and the heavy winds that night.
Interestingly enough, when 6 AM arrived, the kids on the overnight at the zoo were up and ready to go to our private tour before the zoo opened. All the grown up were exhausted. It turns out that we were not the only ones that couldn’t sleep the night before. None of the adults got any sleep! The zoo staff member that was our leader, Todd, said when he leads the group he is never able to sleep and he does it several times a month! I figured in the end that it may have something to do with the adults being fully aware that we are in a vulnerable spot and if any animals were to escape their enclosure (think lions and tigers and bears) it could be catastrophic.
It was a wonderful activity! Tomorrow daytime pictures of the zoo and our behind the scenes adventure!
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