Night Safari

The Singapore Night Safari began as a day zoo in 1973. With a commitment to wildlife conservation, the safari was introduced in 1994. It exhibits more than one thousand animals in 40 hectares of secondary forest. One hundred & twenty species from Asia, Africa, America & Australia range in discreetly hidden enclosures of natural habitat.

Our safari was oversubscribed, resulting in extremely long queues. Our objections were considered & our tour guide managed to fabricate a story convincing organisers to advance us in the queue for the tram ride through the park. A consideration we accepted & were grateful for.

Then it rained on the event organiser's parade. Torrential rain that washed out the evening for most. Shows were cancelled & walks were closed, however, we had an hour+ to wait for our return bus, during which time the weather cleared. This allowed us to complete the shortest of the walks, The Wallaby Trail, which took us to the 'Naracoorte Cave',  a recreation of a cave we are both familiar with.

We lived in Naracoorte, South Australia for eighteen months from mid 1974. Phil worked for the South Australian Highways Department. I taught at Naracoorte South Primary School. This evening allowed time to reminisce about my then class of Preps, Years One & Two & the transformation of our classroom into a cave & the term devoted to an integrated program about limestone cave formations. I recall the unit of work commenced with a visit to the real deal. Thirty-seven years on I wonder about 'my kids' & what they are now doing. I wonder if they ever recall their caving experience?

With a number of tourists to be returned to their respective hotels throughout the city, our bus trip back to the Rendezvous Hotel became a complimentary city night tour!

This morning we travelled by train to Marina Bay expecting to step from the underground to the sight of a bay & a marina. Instead, we found ourselves in the middle of a construction site surrounded by highrise buildings. A concrete jungle! A Day Safari! If there was a bay & a marina it was well hidden. We retraced our journey just two stations to Bayfront, a shopping mall of massive proportions! The terms Marina & Bay are indiscriminately applied it seems.

This afternoon we spent time with the crowd that besieged the Bugis Street Market. It was the largest market I have ever seen. Three floors, stall after stall, aisle after aisle. The hot, cramped & noisy market place soon lost its appeal.