I turned 34 this year, the ripe old age bordering on mid 30’s and gosh, I’m feeling it. Luckily for me though, I was to spend the occasion doing something I didn’t know was possible. Joining a safari in Australia at Dubbo zoo!
Quick stuff
- Where – Dubbo, 5 hours west of Sydney
- Cost – $200-900
- Rating – 5/5
- One line comment – I didn’t even know it was possible to have an experience this unique in Australia.
This past 6 months I’ve recovered from a bit of a personal breakdown, broken my nose surfing. Caught covid twice (well once, but the other time was a false positive scare that cancelled Christmas plans to Europe so I’m counting it) and had to undergo surgery for the second time in my life. All of that meant I had the pleasure of spending my birthday recovering from my nose surgery and unable to talk.
However, this isn’t a sob story as my partner Erin has gone above and beyond to make a great day out of it. My birthday present… a night at the zoo!!
Snore & Roar Safari
Erin booked us in for a night at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, about 5 hours west of Sydney. Seeing this is a fair way from Sydney we made the most of the travel time by linking it with a camping trip to the Warrenbungles, which you can read about here.
This was a completely new concept to me. See, I’ve been to a zoo before as a kid but never thought you could actually stay there and i was fascinated by the concept! In my mind i was going to be waking up on an African Saharan plain with endangered animals all around me and truth be told that was pretty close to reality.
Booking Options & Cost
There’s a couple of different ways you can stay here ranging in price and location, both have pro’s and con’s but see below for a quick over view of how to Safari in Australia at Dubbo Zoo.
Glamping – From $220 per night
Pro’s – You’re actually in the Zoo grounds and everything is very close by.
Con’s – Everything is very close together so don’t expect the most privacy.
Cabins – From $450 per night
Pro’s – A roof over your head with proper beds.
Con’s – It’s not on the zoo grounds so it’s a car trip to see anything.
Zoofari – From $850 per night
Pro’s – This experience is extremely unique and worth the money. Staff are extremely friendly and I don’t think you can find a similar experience anywhere else in Australia.
Con’s – I mean, it’s pretty expensive. Meals are provided and are adequate however in the grand scheme of things you’re not there for the food.
Arriving
Check in time is between 2 and 4 PM. I was confused around this at first however it all made sense when we found out there were afternoon tours. We arrived on time to the main gate at the zoo only to find out we had to jump back in the car and drive to another entrance. The second entrance was well received by us as driving in leads along the ‘Saharan plain’ enclosure giving us our first glimpses of rhino’s, giraffes and zebra’s. the excitement was building!
I still had no knowledge of where we were staying and during the drive in I was eyeing off accommodation area’s around the place to figure out which one could be ours. We checked in and were shown to our room… Turns out Erin booked us into the most expensive option there is.
Our Saharan Villa
Now, the fascination I had of the outlook and vista from our accommodation was palpable. We were in a canvas style cabin with a king size four poster bed overlooking on the Saharan reserve, a deck attached to the front for sunset and sunrise view and a bathtub the size of a plunge pool. I was in awe and quickly took up my seat to view these magnificent animals, some for the first time in my life.
We enjoyed the view for as long as possible until it was time for the first tour, We piled onto the bus in what i thought was quite an odd and very quiet crowd of people. Our tour guide was a great guy named Tom in his early 20’s who started us off by introducing us to a giraffe through hand feeding. Quite the experience seeing them up close, they’re so big and goofy.
From there we met a black rhino, saw some very sleepy female lions from a safe distance and had a talk to a lovely pair of cheetahs (I didn’t know the meow like a cat. blew my mind).
Once the tour was over we enjoyed our dinner in the dining hall, celebrated my birthday at our table with a few tequila shots while receiving questioning glances from other guests and moseyed off for a glass of wine in the biggest bath tub i have ever been in before bed.
A day at the zoo
We checked the sunrise and first light time the night before and very eagerly had alarms set for 5:45 so as we didn’t miss any early morning glimpses of the animals. On our deck in the very frigid 5 degree morning the first shoots of light started to appear. I was convinced that the animals would be sleeping somewhere and we wouldn’t be able to see them. I was happily wrong.
As the sun came up it looked like the tall giraffe feeders placed outside our cabin had grown through the night, it took me a while to realise these were 5 or 6 giraffe’s having their breakfast to an audience of Erin and I not twenty metres away. We stood in awe at the majestic site as they were slowly joined by other animals including zebra’s and antelope, even one sole ostrich, against a backdrop of a radiant sunrise in a blue sky.
We stood there for so long we almost missed our 8am tour and were unjustifiably accused of sleeping in when we arrived. This tour took us to meet a pair of orangutan’s who couple for life and showed us a very impressive territorial dance.
We then checked in with our old friend the black rhino and watched an elephant have his morning bath. I was amazed by the amount of respect the elephant handler and the Elephant itself had for each other. At first glance the juxtaposition of this majestic animal behind such large bars was unsettling however the more we watched the more we understood their bond and the bars offered a way to make sure the elephant doesn’t get too affectionate with his 20 tonnes.
The Self Tour Option
After the tour we packed up our belongings, checked out of our safari dwelling and went off to start our self led tour. Dubbo zoo is quite unique in the way it’s designed. Built as one big 5 kilometre loop it offers the opportunity to drive yourself or hire bikes to ride around. Needless to say being the adventurous sort we hired bikes.
Now seeing the only other zoo I’ve been to is Australia zoo. Full of excitement, interaction and exhibitions to make you think you’re going to be eaten by a crocodile, this is what my expectation of a zoo was. Dubbo zoo on the other hand is used more of an endangered animal breeding ground and habitat rather than a reptile led adrenaline ride. What it lacks in close interaction it more than makes up for in unique environment.
We saw many different types of animals, some of which i didn’t know existed. We saw extinct Mongolian horses, meerkats, lions, tigers, otters, Galapagos turtles, emu’s, ostriches, some hungry elephants and more zebra’s than you could poke a hoof at. Endangered Tassie devils, rare mountain sheep, hippo’s and lemurs.
My personal favourite’s were the meerkats and otters, interestingly enough they’re the smaller animals there but by far the cutest.
As the day lengthened it was time for us to hit the road for the long drive back to Sydney. All in all seeing the zoo is one thing, however having the experience of staying there was out of this world and would highly recommend to anyone. Yes its expensive but you’ll remember the experience long after you’ve forgotten how much it cost.
