Day 5 in Sydney - bus trip to Blue Mountains - part 1

We had booked a bus trip to the Blue Mountains - we did the booking through TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g255060-d26845215-Blue_Mountains_Sydney_Zoo_Scenic_World_Tour_from_Sydney-Sydney_New_South_Wales.html).

It started with a stop at the Sydney Zoo in Bungarribee...

There was a large koala outside the zoo -- we had time to take pictures with it while our bus driver was getting our tickets arranged.

The zoo provided a docent go with us through the first part of the zoo -- a part dedicated to animals from Australia.

The first part had kangaroos...

...we were given food for the kangaroos...

... the kangaroos made their own choice of whether to participate with the visitor-provided feed. Only a few came to participate, and most of those did not seem very hungry!

We saw one wombat in the wombat exposure.

A kangaroo sacked out in the sun

Another couple of kangaroos -- not coming for food!

Our local guide from the zoo shared information about the indigenous people groups who lived on the Australian continent prior to the arrival of the colonizing groups. He also shared about indigenous music on the didgeridoo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo).

To see his performance, including sounds representing different native animals, and demonstrating "circular breathing" (so he can continue playing without having to stop to take a breath), check out this video of our guide's performance: https://youtube.com/shorts/wymJ_Q9dA_M

A display of indigenous weapons

Indigenous peoples map

Men's Tools

Women's Tools

Tasmanian Devil

Wallaby

Koala (there were a number of them sleeping in the trees)

Crocodile

We finished in the Australian animal area, and proceeded to the areas of the zoo where animals from other continents were on display. We stopped at the Meerkat cafe...

... and had a front seat view of these creatures.

Some information about meerkats -- note that a group of meerkats is a "mob"

One of them appeared to be attempting to dig out (here's a video showing his industrious digging: https://youtu.be/_JO9NV7W4i8)

Carl got a cappuccino, and we got a chocolate muffin to share - yum!

Tiger

Info about tiger

Dromedary

I didn't see the Cape porcupine, but I took this picture because of the "collective noun": a prickle of porcupines -- what a cute collective name!

Capybara

Lion

Elephant

Bird of paradise

I think the chimpanzee is giggling at Carl!

We saw another area with meerkats...

... they really appear to be show-offs!

The zoo offered up-close-and-personal experiences with certain animals -- this was a group that was taking advantage of the meerkat encounter. The meerkat encounter was priced AUD$99.99 (about US$63); other encounters were different prices (https://sydneyzoo.com/experiences).

We enjoyed our visit to the Sydney zoo.