Day five – 15 October 2022 - Alligators and snakes

 

Saddles

It was Bev’s daughter’s birthday, and the celebration was to be a brunch at a café called Saddles at Mt White.  Mt White is between Hornsby and Gosford on the old Pacific Highway.  It is in a lovely area and an easy thirty minute drive from Pymble (or thereabouts).  We had a pleasant brunch.  Remarkably, the weather was good and in the sun it was quite warm but if you weren’t, there was still a coolness to the air. 

 

After the brunch Bev decided that we should go to the Australian Reptile Park.  I was not that enamoured by the idea as I don’t like to see animals caged.  However, it was nearby and I thought it would be nice to see some of the native wildlife.  The park is just out of Gosford and we had a pretty drive to get there.   

 

The park was quite small, but it was interesting and well laid out.  They had koalas hanging around in trees, American alligators sunning themselves, bats hanging upside down as well as a couple of Tasmanian devils.  The devil is a carnivorous marsupial about the size of dog.  Apparently it is not bright and has a habit when hungry of eating its own if there is nothing else around.  They have a virus that kills a 100% of those infected so they are battling to save the species by setting up protected areas with specimens that they are confident have not been in contact with the virus.   We saw some turtles and the odd snake.  Like most zoos it has a focus on the conservation of native species so they have quite a breeding programme. 

 

We had quiet night as the cycle event was the next day and we had to be up at the crack of dawn to be at the start line by 6:30am.