£30. For three people, 2 adult and one student, £30. It wouldn't have been that bad, if the park wasn't a complete farm! We were offered half price on our next return, and reluctantly accepted...from what we'd seen so far, I doubt we'd be coming back any time soon. So, we took our tickets and walked into the park, to be met by a pair of girl's pink nickers on the wooden post. I didn't ask, gulped and continued on. Now, usually I wouldn't say judge a book by it's cover...however this was an exception. I would describe it as a petting zoo without the petting :P . We first stepped into the cafe to grab some Lunch, which was actually rather impressive for the state of the rest of it. Having nommed our way to being willing to give the park a second chance from our first impressions, we made our way to the first enclosure. Now, normally cows don't really wow me, but this was different. I mean, cows...WHO OPENS A ZOO AND HAS A COW PEN AS THEIR FIRST ENCLOSURE?! Quickly walking on, unattracted by the methane machines, we found the first "exotic" animals, the meerkat pen. There were about 5 or 6 in the colony, and being able to lean on the wooden enclosure and see them right by your feet on the other side was rather enjoyable. We came right in time to miss the talk, and waited for the crowd to disperse by paying the linking enclosure some attention. "Racoon Dogs" the sign read, and when I saw the animals, they were indeed a weird breed of racoon dog. I had never seen such a specimen before in my life, and doubt I will ever again, however this was one of the more enjoyable sights of the day. Once the crowd had dispersed from the meerkat area, we spent some time watching the meerkats go about their work, digging for no apparent reason and having 2 of the meerkats on Sentry Duty, I wondered why in a year the meerkats hadn't realised there were no predators coming any time soon. The next enclosure told me why.
Now, I apologise if I offend anyone reading if they've had a nasty chicken mishap before, but the closure across from the meerkats was incredibly laughable. Before me, a wooden fence, mesh gate and a third metal wall divided me from the dangerous chickens I could see inside. I mean...without even mentioning chickens as an attraction in a "zoo", I find it ridiculous how I could practically pick up a meerkat and put it in my pocket, then be totally kept out of bounds of the evil chickens. Either the meerkats were scared, or in disbelief it seemed. We then proceeded down a long path, with enclosures surrounding us. In them, yet more farm animals. A pond with geese, ducks and some pidgeons (I still can't work out if they were part of the attraction since it was so bad), some goats and a donkey enclosure were on show. I spent some time with a Donkey that looked about as depressed as I did at the zoo, whom I called Graham. After ten minutes or so, A man came with his children to the donkey enclosure, looked at the other donkey and said "That is not my Donkey", then proceded to walk on. Erm...?
So, having assumed he became delusional from the high price of the low quality attraction, I walked into what I thought would be very exciting; the Wallaby Walkabout. It did what it said on the tin, offered visitors a chance to walk in the Wallaby enclosure and get up close and personal with the Aussie immigrants. So you can imagine my disappointment when we were told to stick to the path, and the Wallaby's came nowhere near. Disappointed, I left and headed into Lemur Wood. I do have to say, this was an excellent experience. In Berlin Zoo, i'd seen a similar thing, a chance to walk about with Lemurs and have them very close to you, and this is what I got. Infact, a Lemur came up to my leg and even gave me a hug! If anything good can be salvaged from this trip, it was a Lemur hug <3: . Anyway, I spent most of my time in there, watching them climb the trees and scare children out of their knickers (which explained my first encounter). Anyhow; I met some more animals that didn't really wow me, like pigs and some Horses. Other animals included Wild Dogs (Who were getting it on), Camels (Who were at the very back, unnoticed), Eagles (Who were chained down, unable to fly ;_;) and Zebras. Having spent only 2 hours around the attraction, we packed up and headed for the exit. However, we stumbled across an "Animal Talk" show, which we stopped to watch. That was really enjoyable, i've never touched a snake before...and there was a cute pair of Ferrets named Frankie and Benny <3: .
So, today's trip? Not as good as I expected, however was fun taking the mickey out of it all the time with my family and seeing some of the nicer things x) . Fresh air and Road trips ftw <3.
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