Friday was a really special, fun-packed day. We went to Colchester Zoo! If you've not yet had the pleasure of visiting this wonderful place, I highly recommend it. It is, in my humble opinion, the best zoo there is. I went there a number of times as a child and have been once as an adult, five or six years ago when my Mum was given the Gift Experience of helping the Orangutan keeper for an afternoon for her birthday. We, naturally, tagged along to watch her enjoy such an amazing experience.
Our company this time around consisted of the three of us and my parents, and what a merry crew we were. From the moment we bounced on in at opening time right through to twenty minutes before closing, we packed in so much fun and met so many animals. I was unsure as to how interested the smallest one among us would be but his delight was a large part of why the day will stay in my memory for a long time.
Noah loved the zoo.
We had gone with a short list of animals we thought he would most enjoy seeing and then knew we could fit in as many other animals as possible once those were ticked off! Colchester zoo also has some incredible feeding times, displays and encounters so we were uncharacteristically organised and actually had a timetable tailored to the ones we knew from experience would be unmissable.
They didn't disappoint.
So, in no particular order (mainly because, having flitted back and forth around the zoo, multiple times to some animals, I can't remember the specific order!) here are just a handful of photos which tell the story of our day...
Orangutan : Noah's favourite. Granny's too!
Meerkats : Comical
Penguin Feeding Time : a truly wonderful thing to witness. Knowing how popular it can be, and knowing how close it is possible to get to these little cuties, we went and loitered around the penguin enclosure (!) almost half an hour before the penguins ever showed up. Some things are worth waiting for.
Sealions : Genius.
We ended up taking in two of their three shows that day, they were simply irresistible, and they had Noah transfixed. I still can't get over the fact that such beasts of the sea can be trained to do so much. And that they seem to really love it.
The final show, close to kicking-out-the-humans-time, was more of a cleaning time for the sealion enclosure that we just happened to be allowed to watch and enjoy. Scuba divers joined the sealions in their pool, scrubbing at the underwater viewing tunnel from which we had visited the sealions numerous times during the day. There's something very strange about being at a zoo and photographing a human in the enclosure, but it had to be done.
That tunnel was brilliant!
Then to another big highlight: Noah feeding an elephant. As you do!
Utter delight. He fed the elephant with his own piece of food and then both mine and Daddy's too, thereby getting a longer time with his elephant than anyone else in the queue but it was so beautiful to see his joy at popping the vegetables into the trunk that suddenly I was much less bothered about experiencing it myself. His face said it all!
Chimps: when not catching their own faeces in their hands and, wait for it.... eating it (!!!!) they were pretty entertaining. Hard to get past seeing something so human-like do something so very disgusting however!
Giraffes : I love giraffes. And now Noah does too.
There were countless other incredible animals, a few of whom are represented in these little collages. Animals are amazing!
Memories were made on Friday which will last for many years to come. Thank you, God, thank you Colchester Zoo and thank you Tesco Clubcard scheme!!
A picture paints a thousand words. Or just one. In this case: Wiped!
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