Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Today we packed up most of our gear and drove down to Murray Bridge to my parents’ place to stay for a few days.

Mt Barker to Murray Bridge

The trip so far

We had planned a quiet day today, but I got a call last night from one of my close school friends from Murray Bridge who works fly-in-fly-out on some large construction projects up in the Kimberly region. They had just got back from holidays and he was flying out Wednesday morning for work, so if we were to catch up then it pretty much had to be today – we drove down after lunch to say hello.

Mt Barker to Murray Bridge

Headed down to Adelaide Zoo for the day today – to see the new entrance precinct and the Giant Pandas.

The weather was fairly warm, so we went well prepared with hats and sunscreen and plenty of water.

I bought Leanne lifetime membership to Adelaide Zoo some time ago, so we get in for free and can bypass the queues, which is nice. Unfortunately that doesn’t include jumping queues to see the Pandas – we were allocated a viewing time and had to line up for over half an hour waiting before we got to see them. They marched us past the Pandas in fairly quick order, but were then able to sit back in the viewing area and watch them … sleeping!

It is quite a nice exhibit, and once they are allowed out into their outdoor viewing areas, it should be a great place to see them.

Andres quite liked the Pandas, or “danda” as he called them. He got a little upset when it was time to leave and go look at some of the other animals. He also liked the Cassowary (very big bird), or “duck” as he likes to call anything with wings (which I’m sure the Cassowary would be most offended by).

Simon and Andres with the Pandas at Adelaide Zoo

It was a nice day at the zoo, even with the warm weather.

I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to visit the zoo, since I’ve had trouble over the past few days with my camera. My large zoom lens which I took for a walk around the Laratinga wetlands last week, is stuck on the camera body and I can’t get it off. The lens itself also won’t slide along the zoom mechanism, so there’s obviously something wrong with it. There doesn’t seem to be any authorised Canon repair centre in Adelaide, and I wouldn’t expect them to necessarily be open at this time of the year anyway.

It’s been quite annoying, since I haven’t been able to use my camera to take photos of family and friends like I normally would, and we had also planned to visit some of the other zoos and wildlife parks in the area while we were here – I didn’t think it was worthwhile without my good camera. We do have a compact digital camera as well, but it’s nowhere near as good for taking photos of people (especially kids who won’t sit still!) or animals.

Anyway, after our zoo visit, we drove home the long way via Gorge Road up to Gumeracha and back to Mt Barker. We popped into the toy factory at the Big Rocking Horse at Gumeracha and ended up buying Andres a small bell shaker (kind of like sleigh bells), similar to what he uses at Gymbaroo – he knew exactly what to do with it!

It was a long day and we were all exhausted when we got home.

Mt Barker to Adelaide Zoo and then back via Gumeracha

Another quiet day today catching up on some work. Leanne’s Aunty came to visit in the afternoon.

Our fourth extended family gathering today – this time it was lunch at Leanne’s parents’ place with her father’s family.

We really need to stop these family gatherings – we’ve been eating far too much great food, especially too many nice desserts!

Andres reading the paper with Grandpa