On the 3^rd June 2019, a small group from Balaklava High School travelled by bus to the Adelaide Zoo for an overnight adventure.  The point of this excursion was to see what activities and facilities the Adelaide Zoo provided, so we were looking at the Zoo with a Tourism focus.   

Once we arrived at the Zoo we dropped off our gear at the Educational Centre and then had a couple of hours to explore the Zoo by ourselves.  Being a cold and cloudy day meant that there weren’t many other visitors at the Zoo so it was very peaceful and most enjoyable.  We were able to observe the many facilities – the café and undercover seating areas, new children’s adventure playground, interactive Zoo and Envirodome displays.  We also enjoyed seeing the animal exhibits which are well presented and displayed detailed information about each animal and their status in the wild.  The pandas were especially active that afternoon with both of them wandering freely around their exhibits giving us great photo opportunities.

Once the Zoo closed to the public at 5pm, we had the Zoo to ourselves.  We met our Zoo Educator, enjoyed afternoon tea and then organised our belongings into the tents which were located on the top of the Education Centre.  We all pitched in to help with the organising of food - the group that cooked the BBQ and prepared salads certainly did a great job and there was plenty of food to share.

To relax after tea, we created our own game of Pictionary by guessing animals that you would find in Zoos and this was a great fun activity. A session in the classrooms enlightened us to the role of Zoos and we met some of the Education Centre exhibits such as the snakes and lizards. It was then time to set off on our night walk.

With red cellophane on our torches and phones, we were given a guided tour of the Zoo. Being a cold night not many animals were about, however, we did get to see some nocturnal animals.  The Fennec Fox being one of the most interesting.  Also the giraffe, which is being prepared for a move to another Zoo, put her head out of the enclosure to have a good look at us!  Sad that she is moving on and that giraffes will no longer be in the city.  

Back at the Education Centre we enjoyed a movie then at 11pm, headed to bed.  We were very lucky that it wasn’t too cold and certainly grateful that it didn’t rain. The Zoo was very peaceful during the evening although the Maned Wolf sounded very close by!

In the morning once hearing all of the animals and bird calls,  we packed up all our belongings and headed down for breakfast. At 8am we had another guided tour, retracing our steps from the evening walk and catching up on things we had missed. Just as we were about to leave, the Siamang and White Cheeked Gibbons put on a very noisy display which was incredible to watch and hear.

I enjoyed this experience, not only did I get to see a whole variety of animals but it was definitely worthwhile. A big thanks for the Zoo for having us as well as to Mrs Von- Zieden for arranging our Zoosnooze.  

Maddie Gorman and the Year 11 Tourism class