Despite Canberra being called the bush capital, I didn´t have high expectations for Tidbinbilla. I was eager to get back into the bush but wasn´t overly enthused about another mountain with a lot of trees. The Australian Alps had no interest for me.

I´m a very fickle person and generally like certain types of forest. I like the wet forests of Tasmania, the Otways and the Dandenongs. Or I like the standard Eucalpyt Forest.

I actually fell in love with it here. I don´t know why. It was different. It reminded me of Mansfield in many ways.

On the bus up we were told we had two choices. We could visit hanging rock to hear an indigenous ranger speak about his heritage. Alternately, we could walk up Gibralter Peak.

I opted for the former.

I was all geared up the hike Gibralter Peak. I love bushwalking and I had read up on this walk. It was meant to be moderate and not be that steep.

On the bus we were told it was moderate to strenuous. After my puffed out efforts at Stromlo the day prior, I made the decision to hear the indigenous presentation. I felt like I would have preferred the bushwalk but I trusted Glenn to get the pictures.

It was actually a really fascinating presentation. Growing up, we are taught a lot about Aboriginal history and culture. I genuinely didn´t think I would learn anything.

We were shown how to create rope from bark. I asked what he was going to do with the rope he created and he let me take it home. I showed my four year old nephew who was so intrigued by it. ¨It´s from a tree!¨

We were shown how to bind things. We were told about how the bushfires came through and the rock wallabies hid between the rock and the earth. We were taught how we could use the environment around us to live. We also got a little pamphlet about indigenous plant use in the region.

It was so compelling that I bought a book on bushfoods so I could show my nephew what I had learnt. There was another person wanting to buy the last copy when I was there.

Gibralter Peak:

I wish that I was a lot fitter so I could have done this walk. I had read great reviews online but I was not fit enough to do this. I´m glad I missed out on it but Glenn got some amazing photos.

We were told that groups of people can rent out the homestead Nil Desperandum and use that as the home base while they explore the area. I´d love to do that. We spent such little time here. I´d like to go to the sanctuary and talk some more to the rangers.

The rangers were great

One of my favourite things about the weekend was that everyone was proud of Canberra. They took pride in their city and their work. You could tell that all the staff were really passionate about Tidbinbilla.

I was chatting to a guy who, upon learning where we lived, said he had been down here recently in search of a rare duck. I jokingly said ¨Oh – so you´d know what the orange bellied parrot is, then?´ Not only did he know of it, he had gone down to Tasmania to see it.

There was a young woman who pointed out a yellow tailed black cockatoo flying overhead. She said ¨I´ll never get sick of seeing that.¨

There is so much to learn

I learned a fair bit about the conservation efforts of the corroboree frog and southern brush tailed wallaby. I learned about the impact bushfires had on the region.

It felt like this area had a lot more history then many national parks that I have visited. It told a much larger story. I wish I could have purchased more books from there so I could learn.

I´m also keen to hike the Australian Alps, something that I hadn´t seriously considered before.

Do I recommend it?

If you´re a nature geek then I definitely recommend it. It was nice. It´s just a shame that we visited at the end of a very hectic weekend and I couldn´t enjoy it more.

I have a slight obsession with animals.

Correction.

I am the type of person that would spend thousands of dollars in travel to see certain types of rare animals. I know the scientific names for many bird species. I have books on identifying animal scat. I love learning about them.

In general, though, I hate zoos. They are often too big and have too many animals. I kinda prefer the wildlife parks that you get in regional towns, such as Jirrahlinga here in Geelong. I like the intimacy that allows you to get a closer look at the animals.

I fell in love with the zoo. I know that my visit doesn´t reflect a normal one, as we got access to the zoo before it had officially opened. We didn´t have to compete with other people to get photos or anything. But gosh, it was a highlight 🙂

It was like the best of both worlds

Most of the photos I´ve taken at zoos aren´t that great. Either the animals are at a distance or they are behind a fence. Here, there was a platform that allowed us to see the Giraffe up close to it´s feeding station. Here is a picture that Glenn took:

This was taken with a 55-200mm lens. We spent a lot of time here just snapping away, as the closeness allowed us to concentrate on the animals facial expressions. It was a real highlight.

They only had a small percentage of the animals that you would find at a normal zoo. There is a large variety of big cats, a couple of African and native species and an aquarium. You can see the full list here. I liked this, as it meant that we could properly spend time at each area and just watch the animals. It just felt so intimate, which is something that you wouldn´t expect at a place with lions and giraffes.

It was a photographers dream. I´d just showed my nephew scenes from the lion king so he was pretty excited about how close we got to Timone.

This is one of the things that I LOVED about the zoo. It reminded me a lot of the local koala and wildlife sanctuary, Jirrahlinga.

I love Jirrahlinga. It is really intimate and not overwhelming. It allows you to get up close and learn about the animals, and occasionally come across one roaming through the area.

That is what happened with this peacock. We saw it walking along the path and Glenn kneeled down to get a photo. It kept on walking up to him and he had to move back… until he just let it pass. That is the type of thing you don´t get at the ´bigger´ zoos.

It really did feel like we got the best aspects of different type of zoos. I normally wouldn´t have gone here, other then for the animal encounters. After visiting, I believe that this is the type of zoo I would prefer to go to in the future.

Up close encounters

The zoo is famous for it´s up-close encounters. The most popular option is meeting a cheetah. I actually had this experience on my bucket list, but wasn´t sure it was worth flying up to Canberra to do this.

I didn´t get to meet a cheetah. I did, however, get to pat a shark.

Now, this is what I loved about the weekend. Most of the conversation is about how people were given freebies in return for commenting about stuff. Well, I saw it as a way to start conversations. My favourite conversation was with my 4 year old nephew.

I texted home to tell him that I was getting to pet a shark. He called up just before I had the experience and wanted to know all about it. I showed him the pictures today and we talked a lot about the animals at the zoo.

The best thing

It was a fantastic experience. Sometimes, during the Human Brochure weekend, we got a level of service that most ´regular´ people wouldn´t get. The only special thing we got here was that we got to explore the zoo before it officially opened. This made it easier for us to learn about the animals and get decent photos. Anyone can do the stuff we did.

I recommend this zoo if you are in the area. The close up experiences are really great and it was awesome to learn about what they are doing for animal conservation.