Geelong

We disembarked the Spirit of Tasmania early Tuesday morning.  We stopped 5 minutes down the road for some breakfast and to figure out where we were going!

We decided to head to Geelong as we could get the camera serviced and new tyres on the car while we were there.  We made our way to the Showgrounds there and found ourselves a spot close to the road so the kids could use their scooters.  After 3 weeks on-the-go in Tassie we enjoyed just chilling out in the sunshine, catching up on some schoolwork and journaling.

On Wednesday we organised new tyres for the car so Mars was able to drop the car off and walk back to the showgrounds. The kids could spend some time working out how to tow each other, as we only have 2 scooters and 1 skateboard. It worked well!

Late in the afternoon we drove out to Eastern Beach for a walk along the Boardwalk.  There were lots of quirky painted Bollards with different characters.

On Thursday we had the camera back (HIP HIP HOORAY FOR A CLEAN CAMERA!!!) and headed off to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.  It's a fantastic place where all the animals are (obviously) contained but their cages aren't obvious and you feel like they are oh-so-close!

Our priority when we arrived was to see the Lion Cubs before they were tucked away.  On the way we stopped to see the Meerkats, which looked quite small compared to the ones we see at Perth Zoo.  They weren't very active either but we enjoyed them anyway.

We continued on to the Lions and their cubs. Such a great experience seeing the cubs interact with their parents and each other! 

After viewing the Painted Dogs we took a Safari Bus that drove through different parts of the African Animal Park.  That was really cool! We felt like we were in the animals environment. 

After some lunch we stopped to watch the hippos.  There were three in the pond and very active! They would 'fight' underwater then come to the surface and continue fighting! And so close!  They were definitely a highlight for me.

On our second lap of the zoo we stopped to learn about the Gorilla hierarchy. The Gorilla was very happy to pose for us and then wandered down to the window where he relaxed and laid down in front of us!

We continued on to the Lions again.  The cubs had been tucked away but the adults were still quite active.  It was really cool to see them moving about, the male came and laid in front of us too! They are such a majestic animal!

After a fabulous day strolling through the African animals we did a quick trip through the Australian part - to see the kangaroos, koalas and emus. Then sit around the 'fire' and cook some imaginary damper while the tea is brewing.

One last happy snap!