Skip to main content

A day at the zoo

I had a phonecall, from the delightful Dorothy. "Would you like to get some animal action today?" Well, what red-blooded man can resist a come-on like that? I jumped into my SUV and roared off down the road to Dorothy's house. Strangely she was both dressed and ready when I got there. She climbed into my SUV and off we zoomed. She normally drives a Camero at high speed. I prefer the more leisurely pace of my driving as opposed to white-knuckle rides. Unsurprisingly, I've never ever had a speeding ticket and am highly unlikely to get one. I never dared ask Dorothy how many she has had though as a nurse, she has a viable excuse.

So, we ended up at Columbia Riverbanks Zoo. It's a rather pleasant place full of interesting plants and animals. Some parts of it are rather Disney-esque but without the atrocious prices, the ridiculous crowds and the feeling that you're trapped in a falsehood. 

Entering the zoo, we turned right and arrived at the monkey enclosure where this fine specimen was perched on a tree, waiting for lunch. These animals have hundreds of acres to roam in the wild and here they are, held captive in a very small space. It's nice to see them all but one cannot but feel sorry for them despite the fact they probably have better food and lodgings here than they ever did in the wild. 
  
Monkey up a tree
Monkey up a tree
Continuing on, we found the lion enclosure where the lion wanted to get frisky with the lioness. Needless to say, the lioness was not amused and didn't want to play.

Gee, I'm bored... Where's Mrs Lion?
Gee, I'm bored... Where's Mrs Lion?

Ah... There she is... Wonder if she'll play
Ah... There she is... Wonder if she'll play

Hey, honey - wanna get lucky?
Hey, honey - wanna get lucky?
No dear, I have a headache.
No dear, I have a headache.

I'm getting out of here, I don't need to be ripped a new one!
I'm getting out of here, I don't need to be ripped a new one!

Darn... I was up for it too!
Darn... I was up for it too!
Continuing on our walk from the entertaining sequence of events between Mr and Mrs Lion, we arrived at the giraffe enclosure. Here, I thought it would be fun since the giraffe was busily chewing some grass to get a head shot. It worked really quite well. I'm really quite pleased with my 70-300 IS lens. It seems to do wildlife photos brilliantly.

Giraffe having lunch
Giraffe having lunch
From there, we moved on to the snake house where I found this fine specimen perched on a branch. I'm assuming it's some kind of tree snake. Judging from the triangular shape to his head and the obvious bulges at the back I will assume that it is a venemous snake. I'm rather pleased to say it was behind glass.

Let sleeping snakes lie
Let sleeping snakes lie
We continued on to wander the rest of the zoo, encountering many interesting exhibits but sadly were defeated by darkness as the sun went to hide behind the horizon. Leaving, we clambered back into my SUV and zoomed off down the interstate again to our favorite Indian restaurant for yet another wonderful meal then back home.
Labels:
Location: Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, 500 Wildlife Parkway, Columbia, SC 29210, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Charleston - a 1 day wander

This was a quick wander I did around Charleston, on my way to and from a business meeting. As it was a business meeting, I didn't really have enough spare carrying space for my digital SLR so I took my trusty superzoom compact. It wasn't a long wander because I had to head back to Lexington for another meeting later in the day. I spared a couple of hours though. Old-style prison transport In the good old days, prisoners were piled into these iron caged wagons together with a slop bucket and taken en masse from the courthouse to the jail or vice versa. Needless to say, the wagons were horse-drawn. When you look at modern prison transport, very little has changed. The bad guys still need to be shackled and they still need to be held in iron cages. The old prison This is, I believe, Charleston's old prison. This is pretty much where I found the old prison wagon. There is another in much better condition parked outside Lexington prison. One day I should go and ph
Post a Comment
Read more »>

Snow falls in Lexington

This is probably the third time in 7 winters that I have known snow fall in South Carolina. It's the second decent snowfall I've seen though. The first was barely enough to be called a heavy frost. This, however, was enough that I could go out and take some really nice photos. Because things are so far apart in this part of the US and because the roads were quite slippery, I didn't venture too far. I went as far as the old mill and wandered around there for a while - until I began to get cold which was pretty much when I called it a day. The old mill in the snow The old sluicegatehouse in the snow The sluice mechanism For some unknown reason my camera had a hard time focussing here. I'm not happy with the result. This is, of course, my old Canon XT. It's usually pretty good with focus. This time I just don't know what it has done. The house where I rent a room This is the house that I rent a room in. The landlady is quite nice a
Post a Comment
Read more »>

Edisto Gardens near Orangeburg SC

For a long time I wanted to visit Edisto Gardens and had been waiting for an excuse. I just woke one morning with no particular plan in mind and decided to find Edisto Gardens - even though there would be precious little in bloom at this time of year. I jumped into my SUV alone this time and roared off following my GPS to a vague address that I had pulled off the internet for the gardens. Anybody that knows me and my GPS will realize that when I say vague, I'm lucky to end up on the correct side of the state let alone the right address. I have an elderly TomTom unit that takes forever to lock onto satallites - I'm talking about ten minutes at times. Then it gets me to the general area before becoming somewhat of a muddle on the specifics, frequently misplacing my location by a few streets. It's pretty awful for accuracy but I own it, I paid for it and I've been using it for several years. I shall continue to use it until it ceases to function despite the inaccurate maps
Read more »>