“Just
living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
Hans
Christian Andersen
To live a life that is gratifying in
most respects requires a good insight, a warm approach to what is at hand, and a
clever anticipation of what is yet to come.
But the secret to happiness, as Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes has once said in the past, is learning to
appreciate the moment and taking great pleasure in being right where we are,
right now, doing what we’re doing.
This is the entrance to the Park. That
fountain in the middle was not functioning when I took this photo. Later on
that day, it was shooting water in every direction. I guess we just came in a
little early. While I am not a fan of basking under the sun, those who do will
probably drool over the place for getting such a generous serving of sunlight.
At 9:00 am, on a clear weather, the heat is still tolerable in Adventure Park but
wearing a cap or a brim hat is probably the next important thing to bringing a
camera.
Like the trails that I found in Port
Moresby Nature Park, most of the trails here are bordered with plants and lofty
trees. There are a couple of bench and tables on the sides to
which we can sit down and get acclimatized to the surrounding temperature before going further to other areas
around the park.
I love that the leaves form an arc
overhead, they remind me of saber arch where the bride and groom shall pass
under during a wedding ceremony.
There is a pond with enough water to
float a yacht located in the center of the park. These paddle boats moored to
the shoal can be rented for a minimal price. I actually thought it would be
much easier to get across the other end of the park by way of this boat rather
than walking around the pond, but I figured I hadn’t been in a boat since 1999
and I was a bit thalassaphobic.
But I consider myself to be a fairly
good swimmer. During my younger days in Cagayan De Oro City, my two older
brothers and cousins have enjoyed the liberty of swimming back and forth from
the edges of Cagayan De Oro River to a small islet on its center in many
occasions. I have swum with them once after getting a good assurance that all
of them would save me if I drowned. I managed to have done the same without
drowning.
In retrospect, it was worth the try.
In
this picture says, “Tree Kangaro, an icon of PNG.” I’m actually more inclined
to think of the Paradise Bird as an iconic representation of PNG but I guess
the Tree Kangaroo is a good contender.
Thriving within the large aviaries are the Victoria Crowned Pigeons or the Royal Bird of PNG. These are
really big pigeons that looked more like a peacock than a pigeon. The feathers
on their heads are formed in such a way that it characterizes a crown.
Going deeper through the densely planted
aviaries, I came across these birds that were being fed at that time. These
birds are called the Goldie Lorikeets.
These are the Stella Lorikeets. Like the
Goldie Lorikeets, these birds are also full of colours but the dominating shade
is red. Those wooden boxes attached to the walls serve as their house, which encourage breeding.
Metal arch trellis are mounted on chosen
footpaths to encourage the growth of vines and to cast a shadow of comfort to
those would walk underneath.
Here’s a resident tree kangaroo munching
on his breakfast. Each of these has a dedicated space of more than 20 square
meters of fenced ground and a tree to climb.
Here’s a Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo,
resting on a branch with its tail dangling down. Let’s assume that this
particular kangaroo is a male and in the meantime, let’s pay no attention to
other visual factors that might link it to being a female so we can
conveniently refer to it as a cute little “him.”
He was resting obliviously like this
when walked past underneath. How many of us would sometimes wish that we were a
happy-go-lucky kangaroo like him?
Uhm, how about a panda, anyone?
Here’s how these tree kangaroos are well
taken care off. Large roaming space and big tree to hang onto.
In an apparent bid to make the habitat
of the denizen birds to be as natural and as comforting to them as possible,
the aviaries are built to be large enough to allow such trees to grow inside. These
trees get a regular trimming to prevent branches from protruding through the
ceiling.
When I was a child, I thought of an
ideal Christmas scene as a snow-laden street with various Christmas lights
hanging on every corner. This is usually with a presence of someone who is plump
enough to dress like Santa Claus who gets munificently compensated to hang
around and to greet everyone with “Ho,
ho, ho! Merry Christmas” in a loud but gleefully modulated voice. Such a scene
is not always without a piñata of one or two reindeers. Now that I think about
it, this is the first time that I saw a deer alive.
Here’s a wild flower that I found in the
park. They say that our personality is reflected by the kind of flowers we
tend to like. Say, for example, if one is more likely to get drawn to the
colour of red rose, then one is probably an enthusiastic person and
oftentimes the life of the party.
I like pink orchids and I like to sleep.
And here’s a diorama of an epic battle
featuring an unfortunate herbivore dinosaur that has fallen prey to the
ferocity of blue Velociraptors. The ‘raptors are predatory carnivores that
opportunely munch on anything that walks on Earth including the T-Rex if given the chance during
the Cretaceous period. As opposed to
what we see in this picture, no one really knows exactly what a dinosaurs’
colors originally were. However, recent studies suggested that the most
probable color they might have had, like the T-Rex in particular, was purple.
Barney was the closest to the real thing
after all.
Walking around the park during a hot and
sunny day is like one of any strenuous activities that may occasionally require
the doer a rest and go somewhere less hot; like a bench under a tree, for
example. The metal fixtures in this photo are actually garden tables retrofitted
with planes on both sides to serve as seats. They looked like floating seats
actually.
While kuya Levi is relishing the
refreshing outcome of being a benchwarmer sitting in a lackadaisical manner, my
thoughts are with the tables. Regular tables have flat and solid surface but I
noticed that these ones were crafted with chain-link surfaces, which I find a
bit baffling. When I say baffling, I
mean baffling enough to make me think of the following questions in mind.
Was it designed this way to...
... let the
leftover foods or breadcrumbs fall down easily and feed any living things
below?
... keep bird
droppings from piling up on the table tops?
... let us see
our legs if they are being bitten by mosquitoes?
The pond is probably the heart of this
park, and sitting closely to it feels like I’m part of the picturesque view.
A park is not without a recreational
equipment. Here’s a caring dad tending to his kids on a swingset. It’s
probably one of the sweetest things a father can do for his children.
Although a picture is not the best way
to depict an amusement ride in action such as a spinning Ferris wheel or a rotating
carousel, these two were operating nicely when we walked past by. One can go to
these rides for a minimal fee. We did not try and board one but I would
convince my friends to try these out on our unscheduled next visit.
Positioned near the parking area next to
the roadside are these life-sized statues of various animals. In the wild, it
is not common to see a panda resting next to a Siberian tiger but perhaps it is
for some educational reason that they were placed altogether in one setting.
This fenced area is an orchid garden and
a bird sanctuary. From the looks of it, I suppose that a large fraction of the
park’s landscaping job is dedicated to this area. If it were not for our
protesting tummies, we would have gone there and had a look of what were
inside. But it was time to head back home and catch some sleep and check out
our favorite TV dramas.
For a survival knife I wouldd ɡo with a plain edge.
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