Awesome Aussie Animals

What is the best animal in the world? That's a difficult question, I realise, there are lots to chose from. When I ask children at school they often chose things like elephants, horses or little kittens and puppies. They're wrong. Until a few years ago I might have made the same mistake - elephants are cool, horses can run and jump 'n' stuff, and kittens and puppies are cute, I suppose. However, I learnt that the greatest of all the beasts is the wombat.

I didn't know much about wombats until my sister introduced me to her friends Robin and Rhinannon. Like me, they had done some backpacking in Australia when they were younger, but instead of the obligatory picture with a koala, Rob and Rhiannon were determined to get their photo taken with a wombat. And they did. Sitting pride of place in their front room, in front of pictures of their two young children, is a framed photo of them cuddling a rather startled looking Australian marsupial!

Robin has become rather evangelical about his love for wombats - telling anyone who will listen about the animal's ability to stick its head in the ground and leave their thick bottom in the air (a genius mode of self defence) - so much so that when Chris, Tamsin and I decided to take Archie and Ella to Melbourne Zoo, there was only one animal the grown ups wanted to see!

Steve, being the classy fellow he is, had joined his friends on a wine tour of the Yarra Valley. So the five of us embarked on our own adventure, through Melbourne on the city's tram network until we arrived at the zoo.

The first few exhibits we visited were a little underwhelming. All of the big cats appeared to be snoozing, prompting Archie to remark, "What's the point of having an animal in the zoo that sleeps all day?" Hard to argue with. The day improved, though, when we visited the sea life enclosure and saw a sea lion and his little penguin friends.

After lunch, we managed to find a few animals that weren't fast asleep: gorillas, monkeys, kangaroos and I even got to see the tigers that had alluded Steve and me in Nepal. We spent a while in the butterfly enclosure and Tamsin was very proud that her husband didn't scream like a girl (too much) as the beautiful creatures flew all around us.

We had left the best until last, though. Deep inside a network of tunnels, Ella and Archie came across what looked like a dead animal. It lay on it's back, motionless. Short stumpy legs pointing up in the dark, but if you looked close enough you could see its furry little chest rising and falling and a big fat bottom! We had finally found a wombat.

Back outside and we met another, this one only slightly more awake as it waddled around its enclosure. Nonetheless, a beautiful sight, I'm sure you'll agree...

We rounded off our day with a Chinese takeaway (something that is almost compulsory when you are with my sister) and learnt all about Steve's day - at least the bits he could remember.

That night, Archie and Ella settled down with a new cuddly toy that their parents had bought them at the zoo. Ella had chosen a lion and Archie a tiger.  I was that close to buying a wombat.