I put my big girl pants on and survived!

Emily was up and out early doors this morning as she had to go into the office which is about an hour away, meaning that I was up at early doors too!

I put my big girl pants on as I had to navigate the whole travelling by myself in a big city thing...I swear Emily was more worried than I was - I mean, how lost can you get in Sydney? Quite lost as it happens.

I took the train to downtown (trusty Citymapper glued to my phone) and managed to get off at the right station for a walk to WildLife (used to be called Sydney Zoo) and the SeaLife Aquarium. I even snagged a senior citizen combo ticket after checking what age qualifies as a senior in Oz (65) I said, 'Oh, I qualify, that will save me $5!' and waited for the ticket seller to exclaim 'but Madam, you cannot possibly be 65!'...... but he didn't. Not sure which bit was the win there.

I wasn't that impressed by the Zoo - I did have coffee amongst the Koalas....

and saw some quite terrifying snakes:

The Northern Death Adder! So well camouflaged...

and some yellow footed rock wallaby

and a very cute Platypus

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but nothing else of any great import.

I trotted off round the corner to the Sea Life place, and this was a different kettle of fish all together - pardon the pun!

I found a turtle right at the start of the meandering path - I thought this was a good omen, and it was.

but then this humungous Puffa Fish... they have a really strong beak that you can just see in the pic

and then this snake necked turtle, which I just did not warm to as much - it really did look like a snake's head...

Kay Bell, I took this pic just for you - I think you have one of these lung fish (or had) just not as big as this 6 footer!

The stars of the show were the coral, anemones and the shark tank

They had bigger teeth than the ones I was diving with in South Africa!

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My absolute favourite was the manatee (called a Dugong here) - I have wanted to see one all of my life, and I have still not given up hope of meeting one in the wild, but this one will do as a holding point. His name is Pig and he has been at the Sea Life centre since 1998 when he was orphaned at 1 week old. So majestic, and only eats lettuce!

You can really see how the fishermen of old thought they were mermaids....

It was about this point that I realised I was almost out of data and battery due to the number of pics I had taken, and I needed access to City Mapper to get home!

I would really recommend this place for a visit if the weather is not too great, or if it is just too hot (as it was today) especially the penguin safari as the create snow for them and it is quite chilly. There are some gorgeous animals here, all of the usual brightly coloured suspects (Nemos and Dorey, corals etc), and some truly regal ones - sharks, rays and Pig, but also some that only their mother could love ...

I thought I would retrace my route to get home, but City Mapper had different plans - I mean, why just use one train station when you can try 3 in 2 days.... anyway, I made it back to Newtown with 72c of data and 12% battery life - just enough juice to stop off at the famous Messina Ice Cream parlour and try some of their home-made mint and choc chip ice cream. Two ice creams in two days, both purporting to the same flavour but poles apart. This one had huge chunks of chocolate, and was made from proper mint, not just mint flavouring, it was delicious - so nice in fact that I shared it with my white trousers - oops! 

Em has a short day on a Friday, so some of her chums are coming over tomorrow and then we are going 'Greek' for dinner - it might get messy, and I am sure I will tell you all about it!