Taronga Zoo’s Roar and Snore a beastly business

Feeding the giraffes at Roar and Snore, Taronga Zoo. Source: Supplied

 The cackle-chorus of kookaburras wakes me just before dawn — no wonder this species of kingfisher is known as the bushman’s alarm clock. The night has been full of big-cat growls and chimpanzee chatter.

Peeling back the flaps of tent No 6, I settle in a chair to watch the rosy sun steal over Sydney Harbour. It’s almost a 180-degree panorama, gradually lightening to a sheen so golden that even the most blase of Sydneysiders would gasp at such preposterous beauty. Only the Himalayan tahrs, clip-clopping about in their nearby rock hill enclosure, have better million-dollar Mosman penthouse views than we Roar and Snore campers at Taronga Zoo.

We are not done with the kookas. During breakfast, a particularly large specimen swoops towards my lap and makes off with a chunk of orange muffin so big it makes a temporary plug in his beak.

Indigenous zookeeper Leon, who hails from the Daintree, thinks that starting the day with a bit of kookaburra action is a very good idea, so out comes his didgeridoo. He is such a master of this powerful-sounding instrument that he can play the calls of melodious magpies and kookas; Leon can make us believe we can hear bounding kangaroos and the whirring sound of the boomerang.

The view from the at Roar and Snore, Taronga Zoo, Sydney. Source: Supplied

A camper named Lauren is having a birthday and so Leon fires up a “didge” version of the famous celebratory song that makes her simultaneously laugh and cry with wonder.

The Roar and Snore package at Sydney’s famous zoo, which will celebrate its centenary next year, is such good fun that there are repeat visitors from the US in our mix this Easter weekend. They tell me it is the highlight of their holiday and the attraction, aside from those mesmerising views, is the opportunity to go behind the scenes and meet the keepers.

Creature comforts? The timber-floored tents sleep two to four persons, have lighting, and the beds are comfortable, with duvets and extra blankets; the pillows are of foam and rather flat so I would take my own next time.

Towels are provided for showers and there’s a liquid soap dispenser but BYO toiletries and maybe a dressing gown for any dashes to the lavatory during the night (tents are not ensuite but the adjacent ablutions block is amply big and very clean).

The accommodation is in two rows and tent No 6 (designated the Little Penguin; all are named for Australian creatures and our next-tent neighbour is Bilby) would be an ideal one to request for dress-circle views. There’s a seemingly endless supply of beverages (flat and sparkling wine, plus beer, juice or soft drinks) and snacks on arrival, a reasonably good buffet dinner at The View restaurant just past the male elephant enclosure, and help-yourself ice blocks or Magnums plus coffee, tea or hot chocolate back at the campsite. Allergies and dietary preferences are catered for if advised in advance.

After a continental breakfast buffet in the main canvas-roofed communal area and quick showers, we head off to visit the giraffes “back stage” with their enclosure’s keeper and queue to feed them lettuce leaves. One by one we sneak back to join the line again and get so close to the bowing, long-necked lovelies that we can almost count their supermodel eyelashes.

Then we are off to the keeper’s kitchen and storeroom at the nocturnal house where we have a chance to stroke a handful of teeny baby feathertail gliders, each barely bigger than a finger, and a juvenile male yellow-bellied glider that pops his head out of a box as if about to do a Punch and Judy show. Trotting past the front-of-house dwellers, I am quite sure a sturdy rufous owl (what big eyes you have …) winks at me.

Tigers, lions, primates, endangered bongo antelopes (happily with a new baby boy in tow), sun bears, fennec foxes, Barbary sheep, Komodo dragons, a magnificent Malaysian tapir and those ultimate pop-up performers, the comical meerkats — we have met them all, some on the walk the first evening, led by Leon with his non-invasive LED red torch, and others on a morning stroll that leads us to the Education Centre near the zoo’s main gate.

Here, an echidna, a quokka joey and a young koala named Luca await, and we learn more from Leon, Megan, Ryan and their khaki-clad colleagues about the habitats, and the curious habits, of Australian bush mammals, birds and reptiles.

After the program ends I top off the morning at the seal show amphitheatre, which is ever so corny, but the sight of Michi the California sea lion doing slippery prat falls like the most seasoned of vaudeville performers somehow seems an ideally joyous finale to a Roar and Snore escapade. Time to glide like a possum down to the ferry wharf on the Sky Safari cable car and head home.

Checklist

Roar and Snore operates Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and during NSW school holidays or periods of extra demand, from 6.15pm to about 9.30am next day. Campers can stay at the zoo all day on a free entry pass and leave their bags at the education centre; there’s complimentary secure overnight parking in a multi-level carpark and 10 per cent off retail items at the zoo’s shops. Children must be five years or over and there are adults-only or family nights on selected dates. From $288 a person; children five to 17, from $184.50. More: www.taronga.org.au.