We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

So yesterday we went to the zoo. Specifically we went to Whipsnade zoo, where I have never been before. Somehow I imagined it was closer into London and much further away from my son’s house than it actually is. But we drove for maybe thirty minutes and we were there.

It was very windy up at the top of the hill where the zoo is situated. The views were fine. Many of the animals seemed to have hidden themselves away indoors though. We saw lemurs and llamas and a solitary lion. Plenty of penguins and various minds of monkeys. 

 

Various horned beasts were seen from across fields and there were at least two zebras. 

 

 

We did see some splendid hippos in their pond but the rhinos were nowhere to be seen and the otters were otterly invisible. 

 

Hippos are imoressively large.

 

 

And we did see ostriches. 

 

We might have seen giraffes if we had been prepared to queue up to go inside the giraffe house. The queue was very long.

On the other hand we did queue to get into the aquarium and the butterfly house. Personally I stopped to admire the various fish and amphibious creatures in the aquarium. There was a splendid chameleon in shades of blue and green. But I did no more than skirt the edge of the butterfly enclosure, despite assurances that I could see a magnificent moth the size of a small dinner plate! Being surrounded by things that flap is not my favourite thing to do in the world. So I went back to entrance to keep an eye on the children’s scooters which we had been obliged to trustingly park in the entrance. The scooters were an excellent idea, enabling us to move at a reasonable speed between various animal enclosures.

Close to the red pandas’ enclosure we stopped for a picnic. Then we had some discussion about whether we were going to continue our adventures to take in tigers and elephants but the small people’s desire to  visit the play area won the day. Too tired to walk any further they had the energy run around and camber up and down climbing frames. It’s a splendidly imaginative play area but much too extensive with small people’s climbing frames leading on the equipment better aimed at 10 to 11 year olds. It’s sheer size was the main problem. We were three adults and three children, aged 3, 6 and 9. Even assigning one adult to each child we were constantly mislaying one or other of them, leading to some anxiety, as you can imagine.

Finally we had to visit the shop, an important element of any visit to a tourist attraction. Again we had to park the scooters. In the hurly-burly of persuading children that we had no intention of spending £10 a time on soft toys, we almost left the scooters behind! Fortunately we remembered before we actually set off the cross the huge parking area to find the car. A good day was had by all.

I might have posted this blog yesterday but at the point when I sat down to type my co-in-laws (this is a sort of translation of the Spanish consuegros - the parents of a married couple) arrived at my son’s house and time just ran away with us.

This morning we got up and packed stuff into the car. Then we set off on a two car trip to yet another play area, this one much more manageable in size and very well equipped. Then the two cars went their separate ways my son and family back to their house and us to make the long trek back to the north of England. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!