I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I live about 40 minutes away from Chester Zoo, which is down the road, right? Yet, I haven’t been to Chester Zoo in more than 20 years. Given I have two children that’s pretty shoddy right? I have corrected that wrong and enjoyed a marathon “make-up-for-decades-of-absence” seven hour day there. I, we, everyone loved it!
I didn’t know how amazing it was and it’s HUUUUGE – seven hours and I reckon we maybe saw half of the Zoo and its animals. Yes really! We went with good friends who are much more regular visitors to the Zoo than ourselves, armed with a picnic we arrived at 10am just as it opened ready for some good Zoo time (we left about 5:30pm!). The elephants were just putting the final touches to their outfits for the day and with a promise to return we headed into the monkey house. The monkey’s were a big hit with Baby G, could be because they were the first thing we saw, or could be because there were “bay-bee-monk-eeees”. Next were the bats, a hit with Batman fan Lil H, the girls were less keen. Its dark in there and with a nearly two year old pinching you in fear we whizzed round. My favourites were the Orangutans I’m a sucker for a gentle lunatic! Lil H gave one of their nests a whirl, not ready to switch his bed from one just yet. We had our picnic and some playground time and then set off in search of giraffes and butterflies with the continued promise of the Dinosaurs. Who knew how cool the butterflies would be? Loved them a lot. Could have stayed in there ages.
We could delay no more the sign had been seen and we headed back thousands of years and for our first trip to the Dinosaurs. They did not disappoint, bottom line if you are a four year old boy – they are masive moving and sound making Dinosaurs and two of them squirt water so you actually get wet. The. End! Lil H could have stayed in the “splash zone” all day. Lured out with the promise of an ice-cream and a second return visit before we went home. We caught the monorail over to the far side of the Zoo to check out the Rhino – poo-eee Mr Stinky Rhino! Over that way were also the Meercats – cute, busy running their financial comparison site from within the Zoo – nice multi-tasking lads. The Elephants were out and about, so big, so beautiful, cute baby elephant too. Jamilah was born at Chester Zoo in January 2011 she’s a she and staying at Chester Zoo so when Lil H and Baby G take their children to Chester Zoo Jamilah will still be there. I like that.
Lil H was desperate to see the “Dinosaurs at Large” one last time, or should I say for one last soaking. The Dinosaurs are not on the map so FYI they are near the Lions, by the fountains lawn and at the back of Islands in Danger. The Dinosaurs are at Chester Zoo until 8th October so we may pop back to see them once more and all the animals we didn’t managed to see in our seven hour trip – yes it really is that big! But is also really is that great, here are some photo’s from our day trip to chester zoo
A big thank you to Superbreak who provided us with our tickets for our day trip to Chester Zoo for more information about Chester Zoo short breaks, a Chester guide because there is more to Chester than the Zoo and other destinations visit their website http://www.superbreak.com, the Superbreak Facebook page and follow them @Superbreak
So have you been to the Zoo, zoo, zoo, too, too, too ?!
