“You want to what…?”
“Campbell and I are getting bikes today…you coming?”
Half asleep, I muttered something back to Wildish about “yeah sure, meet you at the gangway after drill” and fell back asleep…until of course the alarm that marks the beginning of drill keened through the air and woke me up again.
You see, there are a lot of things provided to the crew to keep us entertained since a lot of us have a long time on board. Cheap DVD rental, internet (though we pay through the nose for that), etc etc…and bikes. There’s a small supply of bikes on board that we can hire out for free while in port – an option I had always meant to take advantage of during my time in Alaska, but that I never quite got around to. The Sitka coffee shop was, after all, a lot less effort.
So it was that I found myself coasting down the road next to the harbor, with the wheels whirring as we dodged people, skateboarders, and the occasional dog, on what we thought was a very straight forward route. We thought. On the map, the route to the Melbourne Zoo looked like a straight line, but we took a wrong turn somewhere…
Long story short, we did get there, it just took us a fair amount longer than we expected. By the time we got there my legs were aching, it was starting to try to rain and breakfast was definitely feeling like a long time ago indeed…
But the zoo was definitely worth it…
I have a funny relationship with zoos (like I do with so many things), part of me heartily disagrees with seeing animals in any kind of captivity, but at the same time, I find the creatures so fascinating, and I would never get to see any of them otherwise. Unless I were to go on an actual African safari…
Aaanyway…I’ve not been to a zoo at all since my big farewell day in London (longer ago now than I care to admit), when I went to the London Zoo, and then I went alone. There’s a lot to be said for travelling alone, but there’s a lot to be said for wandering through with two good friends, enjoying the break from the ever-present testosterone heavy environment on the ship (seriously, the ship is a super high ration of men to women, and sometimes, you really do just need some girl-time), dragging each other to see the elephants, “no! The orangutans!” “No! The Zebras!”…
Hey look! Platypuses really do exist!
The platypus is proof that there must be some kind of divine creating force in the universe
Why?
Look at it! No animal that weird could have developed on its own!
Campbell, Wildish and I have a lot in common, and a lot going on in our lives right now, there are a lot of times when our busy little brains will simply not be quiet…well, there’s nothing like pointing and giggling at a baby kangaroo to distract an overly-analytical mind.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! And also, since this is Australia: Koalas and Kangaroos and Emus thrown in for good measure. I never thought I’d actually see a koala, before this the closest I’d ever seen to a koala was the stuffed animal my gramma brought me back from her trip to Australia when I was just little. But there it was, with its little tiny sparkling black eyes, up in a tree, ignoring us completely. Totally adorable. I also never knew how many different kinds of kangaroo there were, I mean, you always have this somewhat generic image of a kangaroo in your mind, but there were all different ones, from ones the size of a small car, to little tiny baby ones that would barely come up to your knee.
As usual though, it was the cats that left an impression on me. And I’m naturally not talking about the little cute kind. These are the big cats. The snow leopard that – even asleep in the back of its enclosure – looks huge, the Sumerian tiger that rolls over and looks into your camera lens as if to say “were it not for this fence little lady, and were it not for the fact that I’m far too sleepy…”.
And of course, the lions.
I know that in nature, male lions do not precisely live together. Once a male reaches a certain age, he is essentially evicted from the pride and left to find his own lionesses. Fully grown adult males do not cohabitate in the wild. But I suspect these males were either rescue lions, or had been raised in captivity – in each other’s company – from the time they were cubs, because there were three of them in the same enclosure. Even behind two layers of fencing, the way they move gives you the chills. And then, just as Campbell and I were about to turn away and head towards the entrance to meet up with Wildish, we stop absolutely shock still.
Is that…?
Yeah…
When you hear a lion roar, you swear it’s the most terrifying sound you’ve ever heard. It freezes you in your spot and makes your blood actually run cold.
You think that’s the last sound you’re ever going to hear…
That sound alone, was worth the price of admission to the zoo.
That and one other thing.
As we were walking along the trail next to the elephant paddock, we looked to our right. Then looked at our watches.
Wanna go check out the butterflies quickly?
I’d forgotten how magical it was to walk into a butterfly enclosure. It’s like walking into a fairy land. Brightly coloured wings everywhere you look. And if you stand, very, very still, those wings will brush up against your skin, like the softest brush of fingertips. Our little trio isn’t exactly the type to consider ourselves ‘too grown up’ for anything, and so we stood, frozen, waiting. And one by one, we each had one settle on us somewhere, just for a moment. Barely long enough to snap a photograph, but long enough.
Of course, you can’t stay among the animals forever. Being as how we’re not Dr Doolittle. Eventually we had to start back to the ship, deciding against the tram as we weren’t sure of the schedule and we weren’t sure if they would allow us to load bikes…which meant we only had the option to ride back. The first part of the ride was amazingly easy, it was all downhill, so you could coast the entire length of the park with the wind whipping by you, never having to peddle once. But then, we got into the city proper, and it had – of course – been raining. The streets were slick, and crowded…and in conditions like that, no matter how careful you are, a wipeout is nearly inevitable. We were on our day down a sidestreet to avoid the main throughfare, trying not to be nervous that there were suddenly three cars right out our tail, and we swerved to bump up onto the sidewalk…unfortunately, the curb was low, the turn was sharp, and, while I saw it coming – by the time the side of my wheel caught the edge of the curb it was too late to do anything but think “oh bloody hell…” followed quickly by something that I think ran the lines of “just let me land away from the car”
Plowed into the pavement, both hands, both knees. Bike went one way, I went the other, and then the bike tipped back and fell on me…just because it could. Wildish and Campbell saw it happened in the reflection of a shop window, and I swear I was more scared for them than I was for me as I sort of clambered back to my feet and examined the damage. Not a great deal hurt except my pride, though I think I still have some of the Melbourne sidewalk embedded in one of my hands. My knees are going to be a wee bit bruised up for the next few days, but nothing major, nothing bleeding…just very very achy…I slapped some ice on it to keep the swelling down and spent the rest of the evening at my library desk looking at pictures of lions and butterflies.
All in all, I’d say it was one of those days where the good outweighs the bad J