The traveling Najade is traveling

[Najade]

I thought I'd open a thread for my Aussie-Asian zooventure. For everyone that hasn't seen my itinerary in the introduction thread it goes as follows:
-Melbourne
-Sydney
-Cheynes Beach
-Perth
-Singapore
-Pattaya
-Bangkok
-Singapore
-Darwin
-Brisbane/Gold Coast

It's probably gonna be more of a travel log than all out review but we all have to start somewhere and work our way up to Chli-level

I'll try to update regularly but some parts of the trip are quite busy. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, my current status: It's 4:30am, I'm half-way between Cheynes and Perth in Kojonup taking a break from driving and I'm writing on my phone. So any mistakes I make, that's my excuse.

 

[Najade]

Day 1 - Melbourne
I arrived with Jetstar (7kg cabin luggage for the whole trip) only about 5 minutes late at 11pm. At the airport I bought myself a new SIM card with Optus (14GB - unlimited international calls and texts for $40), which I'd never heard of before but after a whole 5 minutes of comparing that's what I went with. Annoyingly my phone had run out of battery on the way. As I'd need it for navigating that just wouldn't do so off I went to remedy that. You'd think that in this day and age there would be some sort of charging station somewhere but nope. So I finally found a power plug up in a different terminal in front of some stairs and had a bit of a wait. About half an hour later I went, got my rental car (Hertz) and drove out of the airport.

I then found myself a parking spot and hunkered town in the backseat for the rest of the night.

When I woke up I found that there was a park with a little restroom right next to me which was quite lucky. There was also an ATM close by which was good because as I'd discovered at the 7/11 the night before swiping with my NZ eftpos was not an option. With business attended to I called the museum. The only reason for my museum visit was to see their Thorny Devil. But as I'd learned from helpful zoochatters they are only on show for some time during feeding. I'd emailed the museum before but got told that those times were different every day depending on the keepers whims and to ask again on the same day I planned to visit. So that's what I did and actually got a time: 12 noon (not ideal but workable).

Next up: Melbourne Museum

 

[Chlidonias]

There was also an ATM close by which was good because as I'd discovered at the 7/11 the night before swiping with my NZ eftpos was not an option.

why was this? I've used my card for EFTPOS transactions in Australia. Or was it because they (so I've heard) have this weird thing where you have to have a minimum amount on the sale?

 

[zooboy28]

Typical NZ eftpos cards don't generally work in Australia - but the 'debit' versions, with the chip that you can use like a credit card online, should work.
Whether they work may also depend on the NZ bank you use and the Australian bank whose ATM you use. Normal eftpos cards should work in the respective partner bank's ATM's, but we had friends visit with a TSB eftpos card that would only work at CommBank ATM's in branches - not standalone machines. Their eftpos card didn't work at any shops either.

 

[Chlidonias]

Typical NZ eftpos cards don't generally work in Australia - but the 'debit' versions, with the chip that you can use like a credit card online, should work.

oh right. Mine's a debit card because I travel with it overseas.

 

[Najade]

Melbourne Museum
At first I had planned to go to Melbourne SeaLife before going to the Museum but SeaLife doesn't have parking so I didn't wanna waste more time potentially not finding anywhere to park, driving back and forth etc.
So instead I headed straight for the Museum (arrived around 10:30am) to kill some time before the main event.
The Museum does have a parking garage. And for only AU$17
At least entry was free (student discount).
I had a bit of a wander by myself before joining the free guided tour, which was nice but basic. Seems like these tours always operate under the assumption that people know absolutely nothing. Which might not be too far from the truth in many cases but if I get asked one more time how or why I know this or that (simple) fact I'm gonna start crying about the state of the world.
Anyway, the nature collection was ok. Skeletons, stones etc was good. There were a few life animals (mainly insects, some birds, reptiles etc. Nothing noteworthy as far as I could tell.) which was nice. Sadly a lot of the stuffed animals looked a bit worse for wear.
The other parts (aboriginal, brain/mind, Victoria) I only got a glimpse of during the tour, but I don't really like how this stuff is usually handled anyway...
Around 12 I didn't see anything happening in regards to the Devil. So I headed to the Visitor Centre to ask if everything was going according to plan.
A few phone calls later they told me to rush up as the feeding was happening pretty much right that second and to go to the tank with the globe thing inside. So I ran back up and looked at the wrong tank for a while till I noticed another previously empty terrarium now having an inhabitant
I stood and watched it try to catch an ant for a while, took a bunch of pictures and then headed out.

Animals checked off my list:
Thorny Devil

Up next: Healesville Sanctuary

 

[Chlidonias]

A few phone calls later they told me to rush up as the feeding was happening pretty much right that second and to go to the tank with the globe thing inside. So I ran back up and looked at the wrong tank for a while till I noticed another previously empty terrarium now having an inhabitant

yeah, when I was there I was told it was that tank as well. I stood there for ages with nothing happening, with school kids surging around me like I was in a human tide-pool, until eventually I went for a little wander to look at other tanks while waiting - and found the moloch in the small tank. The tank actually has a moloch sign on it, so I felt a little dumb, but it was fine because he's in the tank for a few hours so there wasn't any danger of missing him anyway.

 

[Najade]

Yeah that sign should have been, well, a sign. But at least I'm not the only one.^^

 

[Najade]

Healesville Sanctuary
I arrived at Healesville after an hours drive at about 2pm. The zoos in Melbourne are pretty scattered about so it's quite a journey to get from one place to another. Was glad for my rental as without it the whole thing would have been impossible.
First I made my way past the Emus, Cassowary and Dingoes to the Flight Arena for the Spirits of the Sky show. I like going to flight shows because I find it interesting to see the different flight techniques of these birds and when in their enclosure they're most often just perching. This show was a bit on the ordinary side (the usual speaking/dancing parrot, flying over people's heads, etc) and the whole toilet paper/send a text to promise to be more ecological-thing was just a bit of a wtf-moment (in German we'd call it "Zum Fremdschämen"). Turns out going to the show was a bad idea for another reason though. As it was the first holiday weekend there were quite a few people in the zoo and most of 'em had also been sitting in that arena with me and most of them decided to walk in the same direction as me after the show had ended. So when I made my way to the Reptile House I found myself with a large herd of holidayers. And I have to say: the visitors here and later in Sydney have to be the most horrible people I have ever encountered in any zoo...by far...and I mean really...really...far!
Every kid was screaming, running, knocking on the enclosure glasses, the parents were either doing nothing about it or were doing some screaming and knocking of their own. No one bothered to read any signs (which given, are not the best but still), so everything was just "that thing(!) in there" or "that rat" (everything in the nocturnal house was called a rat at least once) and people just had that special ability to step right in front of you so you couldn't see into the enclosure anymore. It was just a lack of consideration all round (but that's been my experience a lot in Aussie).
Anyway I took a quick look at Boyd's Forest Dragon and Burton's Legless Lizard and moved on to the nocturnal house in an attempt to get away from the crowds (semi-successfully).
The nocturnal house held the following species:
Sugar Glider
Squirrel Glider / Eastern Barred Bandicoot
Leadbeater's Possum / Long-nosed Potoroos
Greater Bilby
Common Ringtail Possum
Spinifex Hopping Mouse
Fat-tailed Dunnart
Feathertail Glider
Mountain Pygmy Possum
I spent most of my time here and got to see everything except the Sugar Gliders (which didn't bother me too much as I'd seen them before, common pets that they are). Even saw the Potoroos mating^^
When I had about an hour left I made my way for a quick look at the Tasmanian Devil and Common Wombat section and then to the aviaries where I met a German keeper feeding the Helmeted Honeyeater. So we talked a bit and then I moved on to see Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, Red-necked Wallaby and Swamp Wallaby in their walk-through enclosure. As they lock some parts before closing time the keeper let me feed some cockatoos before kicking me out of another aviary.
I made my way to the World of the Platypus section before having to head for the gate. Of course I got lost on my way out so I walked past the lyrebird enclosure and saw it running around on a beam up top so I got a good look at it (had seen them in Sydney before five years ago). Still cool birds.
Then out I went with a few other lost souls to have a quick eat and drink in the car before driving on.

I would have liked to spend more time here (would have been nice for that Thorny Devil feeding to have happened a bit earlier) as I really liked this zoo. I missed the whole bottom left section, and had to rush through quite a bit of the rest. I'd have also liked to see the Tales from Platypus Creek Show or do the Wading with the Platypus (had been booked months in advance :-( ). Maybe if I ever come back I'll even be lucky to go on a non-holiday day.
The one thing I didn't like was the use of tvs for signage (wasn't as annoying as in some other zoos though), so that's a small gripe.

Animals checked off my list:
see above

Up next: Moonlit Sanctuary

 

[Najade]

Oh, I totally forgot to mention: My camera is not working for some reason, so I've had to take pictures with my phone only

 

[Najade]

Moonlit Sanctuary (part I)
It took me about 1,5 hours to get down to Moonlit for the night tour which started at 7pm. I made it in time but barely.
When I had booked the tour I'd thought AU$40 to be quite steep, but man, that was money well spent. It was amazing.
The group was a bit on the larger side that day (>10) and most of the others seemed to be more interested in selfies and their phone but at least they didn't annoy me like the people at Healesville.
I do wanna give a shoutout to our tour guide (don't remember her name as I was still in the restrooms when introductions happened and then after talking for half the tour I was a bit embarrassed to ask). I thought she did a really really brilliant job.
The tour started with a snake petting and holding session which dragged a bit because of the large group size, but oh well...
Then we all got some flashlights and of we went. (The lights were quite cool, with the plastic cover, but more than half died during the tour. Better charge would have been nice.)

Tbc (have to board my flight to Singapore now)

 

[Najade]

We started with the Hairy-nosed Wombats (also saw a wild Brush-tail Possum in one of the trees in their enclosure but don't think anyone else noticed it), then went on to the Koalas, Spotted-tailed Quolls, Feathertails/Owlet-Nightjars, Gliders/Bettongs/Frogmouths, Rufous Bettongs, and Tassie Devils (don't remember the exact order anymore) ending with a feeding session of the Kangaroos roaming the park. Was really cool how many enclosures we went into and how many animals we were allowed to feed. Was definitely worth the money and would go again. Would also like to see it by day, but the night tour seems to be where it's at^^

Afterwards I had another 1+hour drive back to the airport (with a few hour backseat break in a Maccas car park). I returned my car and boarded my plane to Sydney which was only an hour late.

 

[Najade]

Animals checked off my list:
Australian Owlet-Nightjar
Spotted-tailed Quoll
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Brushtail Possum
Yellow-bellied Glider
Rufous Bettong
Southern Bettong
Tammar Wallaby
Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Next up:
WildLife Sydney

(Sorry, wasn't as organised with my lists here, didn't take any pictures either. Probably goes to show how good it was that I was that "distracted".)

 

[Najade]

Day 2 - Sydney
From the airport I walked to Mascot train station. It's over AU$10 more to board the train at the airport itself. One of the things that really annoys me about Aussie is that it scams you at every corner...
Of course you couldn't get an Opal card (smartcard train ticket) at the train station itself, because that would make too much sense, so I had to buy a more expensive one-way ticket and get an Opal card later (*cough* scam *cough*)
I left my stuff at Base Hostel (good enough for a night) which I'd booked because of it's convenient location and made my way to Darling Harbour.

WildLife Sydney
I'd planned to go to SeaLife then on a whale-watch tour and afterwards back to SeaLife, but it turns out their so-called "day"-tickets are not actually day-tickets, but one-time entry tickets. (#scam)
So I scrapped my whale-watching plans and went to the SeaLife/WildLife building. This still being the first holiday weekend the queues at the counter were way too long, so I bought my tickets (2 attraction pass) online on my phone right there and passed the people waiting in line.
I didn't expect to like WildLife (or SeaLife for that matter) much, but I actually did. Yes, there is annoying stuff: tvs for signage, one-way walk, bare halls in between but all in all I liked it although I can't put my finger on why. It was bigger than I'd thought too.
The one big minus for me is that there isn't really anything there that you can't see anywhere else. And while I did see "new stuff" that was only because it was one of my first stops. All the animals I saw again later at some of the other zoos.
I was the only one to stay for the cassowary talk though so for the feeding afterwards it was just me and a couple on a booked tour. Pretty cool to get this close to "the most dangerous bird in the world."
I did end up spending a few hours and then made my way to SeaLife next door.

Animals checked off my list:
Centralian Knob-tailed Gecko
Satin Bowerbird
Ghost Bat
Agile Wallaby
Red-legged Pademelon
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby
Western Grey Kangaroo
Quokka

Next up:
SeaLife Sydney

 

[Najade]

SeaLife
This turned out to be my favourite Aquarium of this trip.
SeaLife is pretty much the same as WildLife just with a different theme (obviously), so what is not great at WildLife is also not great at SeaLife, with the exception of the collection!
Going through there was just a nice balance to it. Different sorts of exibits, different sorts of animals, whereas f.e. S.E.A. just mostly felt like one pool of fish-soup after the other.
My main reason for going had been the Dugongs I'd missed five years ago. And while they were amazing and fun to watch (feeding, swimming, playing with a traffic cone) the highlight for me turned out to be an animal I hadn't expected there at all: Hagfish!
I mean how often do you get to see a member of a whole class of vertebrate that you've never seen before. Amazing and just fascinating to watch and kind of cool-looking. Sadly they are only fed after-hours.
(Now I'm only missing lampreys.)

Animals checked off my list:
Broad-gilled Hagfish
White-spotted Eagle Ray
Giant Shovelnose Ray
Bowmouth Guitarfish
Smalltooth Sawfish
Arafura Filesnake
Dugong

Next up:
Taronga Zoo

 

[Najade]

Day 3 - Sydney
My second day in Sydney started with a trip to ryda.com to buy a pair of binoculars. I had decided on either Nikon Action or Monarch 5. As I didn't really notice a big difference in optical quality I ended up buying the Action 8x40 which were cheaper. Then I made my way to the ferry.

Taronga Zoo
I did make my round through the zoo clockwise starting with the rainforest aviary and then pretty much spend the rest of my time alternating between the nocturnal- and the platypus-house in hopes of Bandicoot or Stick-nest Rat deciding to make an appearance but sadly they didn't.
The visitors were in full swing again. (Probably one of the reasons the bandicoot wasn't out as that was the one enclosure in the nocturnal house that isn't glass-fronted. So they got the full noise-experience.)
One instance especially stuck in my head: I was looking at the Bush Bird enclosures, when a family came in and the mother excitedly started pointing at the Pheasant Coucal sitting up on a branch telling her kids that it was a Kiwi. Now I do get that not everyone is super into animals (or reading signs) and I kind of get how one can confuse a dunnart with a mouse but this just seemed like a case were the kindest thing to do should have been a Notschlachtung.
I did try to find someone to talk to about LbE and Plains-wanderer but most people (keepers!) seemed to not know the difference between short- and long-beaked echidna, or just plain didn't know where they were. One of them at least knew where the plains-wanderers were kept (upper left corner past the farmyard) but I didn't get to see 'em.
Long story short:
Taronga is my least favourite zoo I've been to in Aussie. I didn't particularly like it five years ago (at least they still had Leopard Seal) and I didn't enjoy it this time around. The fact that every interesting animal is behind the scenes, the fact that they don't answer e-mails (not even the ones through "official" zoo channels), the fact that no one seems to know what is happening at their own zoo and the fact that it's annoying to get to, expensive and just in general a bit on the scam-y side just doesn't make me wanna ever come back. I would recommend every other zoo over this one.

Animals checked off my list:
Topknot Pigeon
Plains Rat
Black-footed Tree-rat
Red-tailed Phascogale
Eastern Quoll
Red Kangaroo
Welcome Swallow
Pheasant Coucal
Australian Brushturkey (wild)
Malleefowl


Animals I didn't get to check off my list:
Plains-wanderer
Long-beaked Echidna
Long-nosed Bandicoot
Greater Stick-nest Rat

Next up:
Misadventures on the West Coast

 

[Chlidonias]

I did try to find someone to talk to about LbE and Plains-wanderer but most people (keepers!) seemed to not know the difference between short- and long-beaked echidna, or just plain didn't know where they were.

mm, this is something I commented on recently in another thread (and have done so in the past as well), that zoo-keepers very often don't have any real interest in animals or zoos beyond the specific animals they work with. Often they don't even know anything about the zoo they themselves work in. It's not universal obviously, but it is very common. And it is something I cannot ever explain.

 

[Najade]

After leaving Taronga I got my bags from the hostel and made my way to the airport. I was sitting in front of the terminal when Jetstar decided to tell us they had decided to cancel their last flight to Perth for the day. Of course they told us only after any alternative Jetstar/Qantas flights had already left
So we got two choices: refund or hotel plus being rebooked on the next available Qantas flight at six am the next morning.
As there was only one flight with Tiger that evening for twice the amount I had payed for my flight I begrudgingly went for the hotel option.

 

[Najade]

Day 4 - Sydney to WA
I didn't get a lot of sleep that night seeing as we had to get the first airport shuttle at 4.30am for our promised 6am flight. But alas there is something to the saying "Never fly Jetstar" as when we arrived at the airport we were told that Jetstar hadn't put anyone's names in the system and so they couldn't let us board. After a lot of "we are working on it" and "the situation will be dealt with as quick as we can" the 6am flight left without us and we were told they'd put us on the next one around 8. After some time a woman appeared with a printed out passenger list that she had to tick everyone off of one by one which was a pretty slow process as she was only joined by one other coworker and half the names were still missing. Also half the people were now being put on a Virgin flight at 7 something, the others on the Qantas flight at 8. And as far as I could see/hear they managed to separate all the people traveling together on the different flights. I remember one family being in tears because the daughter was supposed to fly on a different plane than her parents...
I hope everyone got their tickets in time because there were also some people that had walked off for a coffee after being told they'd have to wait for an 8am flight that might now have turned into a 7am one...
I was put on the 7am one and we started with only a small delay.

When I arrived in Perth I went to get my rental (Avis). Somehow my booking that wasn't supposed to include any extras ended up on their side as me having booked everything possible (incl. two child seats etc.). So I lost some more time while that got fixed. At least the price went down too, but it was still almost twice what I had payed in Melbourne.

As soon as I could I drove off and made my way down to Cheynes beach (with only a short food-break in Kojonup) where I arrived after dark around 6pm. I talked to the owners of the caravan park about possible spots for Honey Possums.They did give me some advice on where to go and those spots might be good in summertime but there were no flowers in bloom there now. I walked around in the dark for about 2,5 hours seeing nothing (and I don't just mean no Honey Possums, there was absolutely nothing) before deciding to head back for another night on a backseat.

Staying at the Caravan park turned out to be another waste of money as there would have been a parking area with public toilets directly opposite them which I hadn't seen in the dark. I had also been told that there was a chance for Southern Brown Bandicoots and Pygmy-possums at the car park but of course I didn't see those either. There were only a few macropods hopping about.

Bottom line: Thanks Jetstar


Animals checked off my list:
-

Next up:
Day 2 at Cheynes

 

[Najade]

Day 5 - Cheynes Beach
The next day I went out before sunrise. I again didn't see anything and the sun was up really quick which meant there wasn't much twilight time to be had anyway. So I wandered about for about 4,5 hours scouting out the land. I did find one patch of flowers and saw some whales (some far away, some swimming past right under the cliff I was standing on). They were only doing shallow dives so I didn't see any pectoral fins, flukes or jumps. They had a dorsal fin and by the shape of the head and the size I'm sure it was a Rorqual (probably a Humpback, as it is the season, but I would have expected more barnacles and such).
I went back to the carpark for a quick nap and some food and to decide whether to drive back to Perth, go to the night tour of the zoo in Albany or chance my luck at that flowerpatch and drive home overnight, which I was a bit nervous about because everyone warns you about all those nocturnal animals jumping in front of your car.
As I didn't have a phone connection out there I wasn't able to call the zoo, so that was out.
In the end I chose to stay. I hadn't put all that money and time in just to give up. I waited at that flowerpatch for quite some time with only New Holland Honeyeaters for company. I was already contemplating to head back (weather was getting bad) when I did see a striped back scurry over one of the flowers and disappear. I had seen my first Honey Possum. I did see a second one on another flower, coming and going as quick as the first one and then nothing again.
I'm happy that I did see them but a few seconds longer for a good look or even a picture would have been nicer, but oh well... (I'd guess that they are a bit easier to see in summer. If I ever end up in that region of the world again I'll work on my timing.)
There was some other stuff out there that I couldn't identify like a rat sized mammal that ran across the path in front of me, a wallaby in the bushes, swallows (too quick) and three brown birds flying together at night (never properly got them in my beam of light).

Afterwards I drove back to Perth, well to Kojonup, took a break and then to Perth. There was only one macropod I saw on the street and that was right at the start when I left Cheynes. It was definitely waiting for a car to jump in front of After that it was smooth sailing.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post:
The nature in WA is really beautiful and that's coming from someone who usually doesn't have much of a reaction to that sort of thing. Even in NZ I only did when seeing the Kauris.
Which makes it even sadder that the whole 400+kms on the side of the road are just littered with heaps and heaps of garbage. Don't see why they don't send someone down there to at least clean up once a month...

Animals checked off my list:
Rorqual (Humpback whale?)
Honey Possum

Next up:
Perth Zoo