Day 2 – Time Travel Mishap

This morning we woke up after a troublesome nights sleep, to get up and check out of our Albury motel, and get on the road towards Canberra by 8.30. But first, caffeine.

Over a cheeky Macca’s breakfast we discussed a well known tradition that is upheld in Albury, which we decided to take part in, because why wouldn’t we? This tradition is known as “Doing a Deanie”. It is apparently a right of passage for newly licensed drivers, where you travel the length of Dean Street, chuck an illegal u-ie and drive back. It likely came about from people travelling the street to admire the old buildings from the 1800s that line both sides of the street, which are truly so beautiful that it kind of explains the odd act.

We headed off down the freeway next, passed many old railways heading out of Albury, and towards another weird sight – a submarine. You may be asking yourself why a submarine might be on display out in rural NSW, and honestly, that’s a great question. I have no idea. But the HMAS Otway was an interesting pit stop.

We had next intended on visiting the famous Dog on the Tuckerbox to split up the remaining drive, but somewhere between leaving the motel, having breakfast and seeing the submarine, we had accidentally time travelled in the wrong direction. Somehow the 3 hour drive that we had looked at this morning had turned into a 5 hour drive, and if we left right then we would only just make it to our next booking in time. We genuinely don’t know what happened. So no more detouring unfortunately. We instead drove the 3 remaining hours towards National Zoo and Aquarium.

We were booked in to their newly offered behind the scenes Enrichment Tour, which showed us just how they worked to keep their animals stimulated and entertained. We first had a tour of the enrichment prep room, which was full to the brim of all the materials you could possibly need to create some awesome forms of food enrichment for any number of animals. Our guide hinted at using some time to think about what we could make to put in the enclosures of a couple of animals. On the drive towards the zoo we had spoken about what animals we would love to be working with today since that information isn’t included when you book the tour. Anthony had been keen to see the sun bears, so thought working with them may have be cool. Drew loves meerkats, so of course tried his best to manifest the cute little mongooses to be one of the animals. And guess what? We worked with the sun bears and meerkats!

Next up we were shown the food prep room. They have storage for everything you could possibly need to feed the animals of the zoo. Meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, mealworms and cockroaches? You name it. Because the two animals we would be making toys for today are insectivores and herbivores, we spent some time thinking about what we could do for them and what we could use from that room.

We had some time to think about it because before we started that, we were invited to watch a training session in their aviary with some feathery friends. This included a couple of galahs and two cheeky Red tailed cockatoos. It was pretty interesting seeing just how smart these beautiful creatures were. The cockatoos were a pair, but the male didn’t seem to mind flirting in front of his mate. Both Drew and Anthony managed to catch his eye, so he tried again and again to impress with his impressive displays. Amy and I managed to avoid his attention mostly.

After asking a few questions if the trainer, our guide showed us back to the room full of fun enrichment materials. We gathered things to create our ideas, which was one box each with treats wrapped in a towel inside for the two sun bears we were providing enrichment for (Taka and Otay) and a ball pit for the meerkats. We then collected mealworms and cockroaches, all having a go at hand picking them. It wasn’t the most fun I’ve had I’ll admit, but once we had the creepy crawlies contained, we went and got to see some sun bear training! 

They do some really cool things with their sunbears. Most of the training is to help with vet checks, so it’s really about positioning themselves against the fence in specific ways. They do this with target and gesture training. The whole process reminded me of training our two golden retrievers, so I know how. much hard work is going into it.

Once Taka had finished his session, we went through and placed out boxes inside the enclosure. I don’t really know why but this was one of my favourite moments of the day. There is something pretty wild and exclusive about venturing inside a zoos exhibit. Once we positioned out toys and food around the enclosure, we circled around and watched Taka and Otay come through and sniff out the treats. Taka is a fast boy though, and he got both boxes before Otay slowly made her way around. It was incredible seeing Taka use his senses to sniff out the goodies and rip apart the boxes and towels using his paws and gestures that are so reminiscent of human movement – it really fostered an uncanny feeling.

Once we saw the demise of two of our enrichment projects, we made our way across to the meerkats. Our guide saw how excited Drew was for meerkats, she quietly suggested that we enter the enclosure to give them our ball pit. This was such an exciting prospect! We followed her through the first of the airlock gates, cleaned out shoes just to be blocked by the second door. Apparently she didn’t have the correct key to let us in. This was pretty disappointing, but we didn’t let it being down the mood. Instead we went around to the barrier again and threw the box and bugs over into the mulch pit and watched them “Bazinga” their way through. It was so cute! 

This is when out guide left us and let us to do what we wanted with the rest of the zoo’s opening hours. Because of the time travel shenanigans, we hadn’t had lunch. We decided that getting food was in everyone’s best interest, so at 4 o’clock we went to find some snacks. We ate quickly and spent the last hour strolling around and seeing what we could until closing. 

Once 5 o’clock came around, we left and headed to our accommodation for the next two days. I won’t name names but it has been kind of a terrible experience. So instead of dwelling on the shortfalls of this hotel, we went to a place called Ramen Daddy for dinner to cheer ourselves up. I think we ordered about 50% of the menu and everything was delicious! The boys got ramen and it honestly competed with some of the ramen we have eaten in Japan. We’re kind of sad that this isn’t available to us in Melbourne. 

To round off our evening we headed up to the lookout at the top of Mount Ainsley to views of Canberra and parliament house. It was stunning. 

Tomorrow we’re heading to visit my cow in the morning, followed by a glass blowing class for the guys, and some random sight seeing to finish our second to last day. Long weekends are never long enough.