Sambil mengisi liburan semester, apasalahnya si jalan-jalan di aliran sungai gintung yang mengalir tidak begitu deras, berharap sampai ke hutan pinus desa salamerta.kegiatan ini  kami sebut dengan Rivering, Berjalan diatas Batu yang curam, Naik tebing bebatuan yang lumayan licin...hhmmmm sedikit menguras tenaga Tapi Asyik Juga (Lihat Gambar 39 Gambar Lainya)

I took a rickshaw from my hotel out to Banjarnegara zoo. It is situated within a recreation area on the outskirts of town. It is enclosed by the town on the one side and a magnificent river on the other. The zoo and recreation area are one and the same, there is no division, the funfair type rides are in and amongst the animal exhibit area as are food and drink stalls. Some of the area is paved but mainly the ground is packed (and today, dry) mud. The inside of animal exhibits is the same where the cages are not raised or concreted.
Now before I get started, let me say that the Palm Civet enclosure here was close to or even the worst I have seen anywhere. As a starter that gives a good indication of what the zoo was like. It was horrible.

There were the good sides though which is more than I could have said about Baturraden Zoo. Here the food looked good and most things seemed to have more than enough. Highly unusually there were some very good signs. Okay they lacked maps but they had all the important information in nice little 'mind bites'. These signs were so clean and put up in such a way as to make me think they have been up a week at most. It is almost as if someone knew I was coming...but then I didn't know till two days ago, well today really, so that’s impossible. There were two generations of much older worn signs with the basic information.
The first animals I came to were a pair of Two-wattled Cassowaries and a half grown chick. These birds were fantastic specimens. Without a doubt the best looking Cassowaries I have seen anywhere...and I have seen a lot on this trip. The enclosure was horrible, it was dirty and strewn in rubbish BUT they had water and they had shade and shelter from the rain (if it rained). This picture was more or less the same all the way round. Shelter and water. Sometimes the water was in just an old paint pot but at least it was there. The animals too were all, seemingly in good condition, physically. Of course the whole place was a health and safety nightmare and where barriers did exist they were really neither use nor ornament. The cages did have warning signs though which said don't feed or something similar "Dilarang memberi Makan satwa".
That’s it really. I cannot think of another good thing to say about this place. I don't know what the financial arrangements are but general conditions are very basic to say the least.
I'm not going to list again because there was a lot more stock here. It is this stock that concerns me.
Where did it come from?
A zoo like this cannot seem to afford more than the very basic, bare bones, unsuitable accommodation so they cannot afford to actually buy animals. So they must have been donated. By whom??????? (Actually I know by whom because there was a sign to say that some of these animals came from Taman Safari Indonesia)

Read more on http://hubpages.com/hub/Banjarnegara-zoo