Then it's time to set off for the major bucket list tick of them all. Once I realised I didn't really want to be a science teacher, (can you imagine???), I had three main jobs I would have loved to do. The first was in television in some form - and more specifically Channel 9, Bendigo Street Richmond. Incredibly, I managed to tick that box and still work in the field.
The next two, in no specific order, were travel agent and zookeeper. I get a bit of the travel agent in by planning these trips and researching the hotels, etc. so that's that one covered. And today, I finally got to do Keeper for a Day - to cover the zookeeper side! It's something I've wanted to do ever since I knew it was possible to do it. Melbourne Zoo doesn't offer it. Adelaide and/or Perth offer it but not on days when I've been there. Today is the day!
On the train to Camden and then a really pretty walk along Regent Park to get to the East Gate by 8:40. I'm surprised everyone isn't staring at my feet cos I have socks and my hiking boots on - which to me feels extremely weird. I suppose to everyone else, it's just someone in a pair of sneakers.
And the keepers cottage is something the likes of which you wouldn't see on Australia.
Nathan greets us - he's our 'keeper for the day'. There are five of us - three are gift shop staff who are doing it so they can talk about it to patrons from a personal experience, and another girl - a stay-at-home mum who's out for the first time. We sign the forms promising not to sue if we lose a thumb from a camel bite and not to throw things at the animals and are kitted out in either a boiler suit or a t-shirt. I opted for the t-shirt... Then it's over to the cafe for coffee and pastry and details of our day's itinerary.
Then it's off to our first chore. (Be warned, this is now just basically going to be a series of animal photos!) The first chore is in the camel pen - racking up leaves and poo...
It takes a fair bit of grunt and the amount of poo these two camels produce in one night is astounding! They just look at us, as if saying, "Yes, minion, clean my mess."
But look how nicely raked that pen is in front of the stable! We then get to meet the camels - with their keeper close by - they can bite.
Once the camels are out, we clean inside their stable and rake out fresh sawdust.
Next is giving the giraffes their morning snack...
..before heading into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the bearded pigs - of which I did not take a photo! But here's the kitchen with blackboards with each animal's meal plan written on.
The fridges have pictures on, in case you can't read.
Bahjit and I were doing the breakfast buckets which were 10 apples and 5 carrots - all chopped to about one inch, core and all. Assis and Hannah and Hannah were doing the dinner buckets which had apples, carrots, potato and beetroot. They actually had to ask which were the beetroots cos they "don't eat vegetables" and didn't know!
The meal buckets were stored away and we went round to see the pigs and give them their enrichment. Today it was coconuts so we pelted them into the pen and watched them crack them open and eat them, shell and all.
Next was an animal I've not really spent a lot of time looking at - the Galapagos tortoise. But when we went in, it was amazing - there seems to be a great wisdom in their eyes. They are fascinating. The chores in here were to clean any poo and muck out the pond. There was no poo - it was all in the pond. And as we didn't have wellies, it fell to Nathan to do the pond. We just had to feed the hose through and keep the animals off it - cos they will go where they want regardless if you're in their way or not.
They have something called the finch effect. In the wild, the tortoise cranes his neck and arms out and finches feast on the dead skin and muck in the crevasses of its skin - beneficial to both animals. So if you scratch their neck, they go into this hypnotic mode - the finch effect...
Trying to get him in the raised hypnotic state to get him off the hose.
Our last animals before lunch were the penguins. It's a great exhibit with a massive water pond. They fly along, porpoising (leaping out of the water) to build up speed. Great animals. There was one fabulous guy called Ricky - apparently quite famous, has a Facebook page and fans. One of the ones Robin Williams played in Happy Feet (I think). He groomed me! (Ricky, not Robin Williams! RIP)
Lunch time - in the staff cafeteria. A really good zucchini, feta, bean pie thing with cabbage and corn and a drink. Delish! And we were all pretty hungry...
If I had to pick a favourite activity today, the one first up after lunch would be the one - feeding lunch to the colobus monkeys. They were amazing! There was a mother and baby.
A couple would squabble over food. One was very shy and wouldn't take it from you but you could feed him like an airplane to a baby...
Loved these guys a lot!
We did wander through the gorilla section to see if the baby was anywhere to be seen but mama was up, out of viewing with bub. Also had a look through the tiger section - magnificent creatures!
Anteaters were next. Like the tortoise, I've never given them much thought but they were hilarious! This is the area Nathan normally works in. He showed us in the kitchen here - we didn't have to help prepare anything here, they were eating live worms. We went into the little enclosure and he scattered the 'lunch' around and the little anteaters went into action, scurrying everywhere, very industrious. And surprisingly soft. We could feel their little bodies and they were quite soft - and hairy. Hard to get a good photo - they didn't look up a lot!
They were trying to dig in behind me and wouldn't give it up. So I stood up and revealed one of the little worms had attempted a getaway by burrowing under my leg. Poor thing didn't last long...
All the afternoon jobs involve feeding - all the muck raking is done in the morning. And next for us is the ring tail coati. This involved us throwing pellets into one side of the enclosure so they would all run over there. They were locked over there and we went in and hid their food all over the place - up high in the branches and dug into the soil. Nathan then got us to sit on the ground along a wall and released the coatis. Apparently their Latin name means 'nosey noses' and when they came charging in, they showed us why. They found every piece of chopped fruit and veg. They can climb anything - can go down vertically. Amazing to watch.
Nathan then sprinkled us with pellets so they would run around and over us searching for them. We could touch, within reason, as they are not tame domestic animals. It was fantastic having them climb all over us, digging out all the pellets.
Not the best of photos - it was a tricky one to get!
Our last animal was a great choice to end on - everyone's favourite - this guy...
..the meerkat! Again we were seated and given pellets to scatter on our laps. They came and scampered all over us looking for the food. So very cute!
Back to the cafeteria to get a coffee and cake, then back up the spiral staircase to finish up...
We got to keep our Keeper for a Day t-shirt and also got a great tote bag and zoo magazines. Sadly for the girls, they had to hand back their boiler suits.
And that was that - amazing day. Bucket list done. So many animals. And I'm too old to be a zookeeper! It's pretty strenuous. But I loved the day!! It was a great variety of animals and activities.
Walked back to the station and it looked like the market was going on - Camden Market - but I was too tired and I'm not that much of a market/shopping fan, so back on the train and home.
Sat for a little while contemplating what to do for the evening. I had applied for a ticket to the Graham Norton show tonight but they are like hen's teeth and didn't come through. Which was a shame but I had kept the night free just in case.
I looked at my list of vegetarian restaurants to try and worked out that within 7 minutes walk, I could get to the Coach and Horse - the first vegetarian pub (according to their advertising). And I chose to see The Commitments, purely because the theatre was across the road from the pub and the whole thing was a short walk from home.
First to the pub where you go through the bar, up a rickety staircase to the dining room, simply furnished. Had haloumi, courgette and mint patties with some salad. They were absolutely delicious!
The Palace Theatre is beautiful! Lovely marble staircases, statues, ornate mouldings. Beautiful!
And the show was fantastic - the lead guy had the most amazing voice! And the songs were the same great songs from the movie - Mustang Sally, Heard It Through the Grapevine, Uptight and so on. Great staging. In the concert part at the end they had two drummers onstage and another in the pit, plus all the other onstage and pit musos. I asked the sound guy if the pit guys stopped playing when the onstage guys played and he said no, they all jammed along - making his initial setup very difficult.
They get everyone up to dance at the end and if you want to see what's happening, you have to stand. So I did but I did not dance or whoop - unlike everyone else around me... Doesn't mean I don't enjoy it though!
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