Wandering the ANZAC Bridge and Seeing Australian Animals

I'm done the semester, what now?  It's a whole new ball game now that I am not studying and have no responsibilities.  I can be a complete tourist because I have all the time in the world to see the sights and enjoy the city.  So far this week, the only productive thing that I have done is write a list of all of the things I want to see in Sydney.  I've been forcing myself to go out and take it all in, even if it is just to the local park for an hour or two.  It is just too darn easy to get caught into a Netflix binge.  I just started watching Prison Break.  But, you probably don't care about what T.V. shows I'm watching; get to the interesting Sydney stuff, Amanda!  Well luckily as much as I am enjoying Prison Break, I find it quite disturbing too, so I need to break it up with fun things outside of the four walls of my room.  So far this week, I had a wander across the ANZAC Bridge and went to Wildlife Sydney Zoo, to finally see some kangaroos, it took bloody long enough for me to see one.  Especially considering that I learned there is an estimated 3:1 ratio of kangaroos to human beings on the continent.  Warning: when I get to writing about my trip to the wildlife zoo, there will be several added fun facts like this.

But first, my walk along ANZAC Bridge.  On Tuesday, it was an absolutely gorgeous day in Sydney so I decided to wander.  I ended up on a three hour walk that lead me up to Jubilee Park over ANZAC Bridge and around Darling Harbour.  There were quite a few people out and about because of the great weather.

This was in Jubilee Park

I thought this was a nice mural.

There was a lovely pedestrian walkway that worked its way up from Jubilee Park and over the eight-lane road that goes across ANZAC bridge.  The bridge was actually called Glebe Island Bridge before it was renamed on Remembrance day in 1998. It also has two statues of soldiers on either side of the road, one Australian and one New Zealander. Here are some more pictures because I don't know any other facts about the bridge:

Here I was working my way to the bridge itself.  Beautiful Sydney skyline.

This is one of the soldier statues.  I forgot to mention that there is an Australian flag and a New Zealand flag on each peak of the bridge.  In this picture it is the New Zealand flag.

              

         

After crossing the bridge I started to head home, I ended up walking through the Sydney Fish Market on my way back.  This may be an unpopular opinion, but I swear there are so many aspects of Sydney that remind me exactly of Vancouver.  This fish market is one example, I thought it could easily have been Granville Island (except Granville is a little nicer).  Plus there is the whole north/south divide of the cities with water. Obviously there are differences, but there is something the same about the two.  I don't know, maybe its just me...

Then on Wednesday, I went to Wildlife Sydney Zoo.  I got kind of fed up with not seeing kangaroos for the whole of my four moths here, especially given the huge number of kangaroos in Australia (refer to above ratio).  So I made my way to the the small zoo in Darling Harbour.  Not only did I see kangaroos, I got to pet them! The zoo only had animals native to Australia, so it was not very big, but the trip was so worth it.  I saw a bunch of snakes, lizards, rodents, and of course koalas, kangaroos, and a crocodile!  The first animal I saw were two scrub pythons who were kind of cute.  I know that is not a word closely associated with deadly snakes who can eat animals as big as wallabies and tree kangaroos, but they were all coiled together for a cuddly nap:

You would almost think that it was just one snake.

Next, I passed by a bunch of frogs and other snakes.  It was very educational to identify what the most deadly snakes look like, in case I see one in the wild.  But, I sincerely hope that I never get that close without a thick piece of glass between us.  I also passed by the koala enclosure.  He was giving me the cold shoulder, but this is probably because he was sleeping.  Did you know that koalas sleep for 20 hours of the day because their diet is so low in nutrients, they cannot waste extra energy?  Well now you do!  This is his furry bum:

Can you spot him? He's in the middle on the closes branch.

These guys must be professional models.

There were more reptiles as well as the Southern Cassowary, which is the world's deadliest bird.  I don't know about you, but before yesterday, I had only considered spiders and snakes a threat on land (clearly crocodiles and sharks are the water threats).  But, nope, Australia also has dangerous birds.  It is also the third largest bird  in the world and has this huge dagger-like claw.

World's deadliest bird, also super ugly.  Don't tell them I said that!

Then we got to the good stuff: wallabies and kangaroos.  I got there right as the handler was giving a talk on the kangaroos and you could go up and pet them.  I won't admit that it took me several minutes to figure out how to open the gate to get into the enclosure.  But, for those of you looking to go in the future, press the button at the top.  I think all of the kangaroos at this zoo were rescues and there were two types: eastern grey and kangaroo island kangaroos.  It turns out that even if the mother kangaroo dies (in this case by car accident - where we are weary of deer crossing the road, Australians have to keep their eyes peeled for kangaroos), the joey can still life, and this is where at least two of the zoo's kangaroos came from.  Another fun fact: a kangaroo can carry up to three joeys in her pouch at different stages.  She can also put pregnancy on hold if conditions aren't right.

Pro tip: get the handler with the food to take the picture for you.  That way, the animals look right at the camera.

At least one of us knows how to pose for a camera.

FYI - the two darker ones are from Kangaroo Island.

Last stop in the zoo: saltwater crocodile (aka 'salties' as the locals call them).  There was one huge saltie that you could get up close and personal with.  He must be quite used to people because he sat right next to the window where we could look in.  There was also a cool look out in the middle of the water to really be in his face.

For perspective

The closest I ever wish to be to one of these.

What can I say besides terrifying.  I am now set for life.  I never need to see this again.

So there were the highlights of my week so far and a glimpse into the animals that I will keep a look out for on all of my trips outside of the city.  I am so happy that I finally saw a kangaroo (said no Australian ever), now I don't have to strain to look for them out of any car or train window on future journeys.  Although I guess it would be a whole other experience seeing one in the wild.  So maybe I will still look.