(you can clicky through all the pics and links for bigger ones)

This week, as part of the Renault Koleos campaign I have running at All for Women (have you entered the competition to win a new laptop?) we set off on a trip to Dubbo Zoo.

Will split this in to 2 posts, too many lame tourist family holiday snaps that no one is really interested for one post

We took the long way there through Bathurst, had to do the full bogan thing and visit Mount Panorama. Course we both had to do a lap around each, the kids were most disappointed in the 60km/hr speed limit, but honestly, in places even that is way to fast. Looks nothing like it does on TV, how they do it without crapping their pants every lap I do not know!

Arrived in Dubbo with just enough time to wash the ginormous bugs from the Koleos before check in time for our Zoofari adventure.

The Zoofari lodge is tucked away right at the back of the park, by the time we drove round there we had just enough time to put our stuff in our “tent”, order our dinner and meet the bus for our first tour. You can check out the post on That’s Noice for more details on Zoofari.

First stop our behind the scenes tour was the Sumatran Tigers (I am so bad with remembering names) just as they were being let into their night dens. Wednesday was fasting day (maybe I need to give that a go?) but the keepers had left a new enrichment activity for them, so we got to watch them, from about 3m away attacking large plastic drums hanging form the roof to find the noms. Tigers are a big fav in our family, it was amazing to see them so close up.

Next stop was the Wild Dogs. Must admit, I had never seen or heard of these guys before. But there were really interesting, and such beautiful markings. Keepers waited for us to arrive for feeding time, so we could see the pack and their “peep rally” in full swing. WOW..noisy! Check out a short video clip.

Then we stopped by the Meerkats, damn those little buggers are so cute..love them! Our guide had some tasty treats for them to entice them over to say hello to us.

She saved the best for last for the afternoon tour, we stopped by the large savannah exhibit, with a toot toot of the mini bus horn and one of the 4 boys started to mosey on over to us. Isn’t he gorgeous?! I think his name was Jerry.

We all had a go at feeding him some carrots, and having our hand covered in Giraffe slobber. The kids couldn’t wipe the grin of their face for the rest of the evening.

Next was dinner, OMG the food was beautiful! Lovely 3 course meal. I even did the whole food blogger thing…I generally don’t have the guts to whip the camera out for food pics in a restaurant.

After dinner we went out on the night tour, stay tuned for part 2…..