We had a relaxing night watching TV and I wrote my blog post. I also Googled a bit about the history of Kandos. It had proven to be a larger town than we had expected, so we figured there must have been something happening in the past.
We were correct, it turns out that Kandos is a town which was created in 1913 to exploit the limestone in the area.
It became a huge producer of cement which gave it the nickname “The Town That Built Sydney”. The cement works closed in 2011
We had a relaxed start as it was only a short 190 kms to Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. We were really looking forward to today, as we have booked to stay AT the zoo in a tent right with the animals.
We arrived at the zoo around 10:00 and found the check-in desk. We knew we could not get to the Zoofari section of the zoo until 2:00pm, but we allowed admission to the zoo for 2 days, so we planned on looking around the zoo before our “Zoofari” Adventure. We were given directions of what we needed to do for the Zoofari and also a map of the zoo. Our accommodation package included bike hire to see the zoo, but bikes and I dod not mix well – there is often blood !! I was initially told we could upgrade to a golf cart, but the lady at the ticket counter said this was no longer an option 🙁 We were looking for the place to hire the golf carts when I noticed on the map this….
CAR???? So we went back to the ticket office and asked. Yes!! you can drive your own car around the zoo. They keep that little nugget of information somewhat quiet. She told us where to go to access the zoo circuit and we were off. First stop was Meerkats !!! Yay!! We spent a good amount of time watching these cute animals. We did notice that it was super hot even for Meerkats. In all the TV docos we have seen, we have not seen Meerkats flatten themselves out in the sand like this.
After the Meerkats, we looked at a number of other exhibits. It was SO hot it was not a comfortable day at all. In between each stop, we managed to catch a bit of a reprieve in the car, but as the car was in the sun at each carpark, it took a while to cool down 🙁
By 2 o’clock we were well and ready to head to the Guest House for Zoofari and check in and get out of the 41 degree heat.
We were shown to our “tent” and were glad to be told that the airconditioning was on ready for our arrival.
The tent/room was quite luxurious with a king sized bed, lounge area and full ensuite including a bath. From the deck out the front we could giraffe, zebra, rhino, ostrich, eland and blackbuck….oh and kangaroo 🙂
From our 2:00 check in we had a bit of relaxation time. For us, this included a cold shower and trying to feel sort of “normal” Both of us had a bit of a headache and did not feel “well”.. We figured we had a bit of heat exhaustion from being out at the zoo. 🙁
We had been left an itinerary in our room, so we knew we had to be at our “bus stop” at 4:00 for our first tour.
We boarded our tour “bus/truck” and had a very informative tour of the zoo.
We arrived back at “camp” with time for quick freshen up before heading to the GuestHouse for our included dinner. On arrival at the GuestHouse, we had canapes and wine tastings before being invited to take our seats for dinner.
Dinner was multiple dishes which were delivered in large share platters which we all passed along the table. Dishes included Roast lamb, Meatballs and noodles, Chicken and vegetables, roast veges and salad
After dinner, we went back to our tent and marvelled at the animals right in front of us. It really was like being on an African Safari. Before turning in for the night, we set an alarm so we did not sleep in because we had a 6:45am tour before breakfast.
