We had moored overnight where we thought that there should be a quite short walk to Chester Zoo. However, we also discovered that the entrance to the zoo has been changed an would this path still lead there? The National Cycle Route indicated so and that it was half a mile. Christine talked with a local walker last night and Mike with a cyclist this morning and both confirmed that the bridle path would take us to a gate into the car park.
The zoo officially opens at 10 am but we also understood that it started to let people in half an hour early and that it would be less busy in the first hour or so! So we organised ourselves to set off from the boat around 9.30. Our informants were indeed correct and after about ten minutes from the canal bridge we arrived at a marked pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the zoo car park. (We later also discovered that the bridle path continues and divides the zoo into two sections)
We arrived at the ticket booths and Christine paid over the large fortune that entry into tourist attractions involves these days! At least we only paid extra for one item.
Right in front of the zoo is the elephant enclosure which we had heard about from the web site because a new baby elephant had been born just three days ago. Sure enough, there it was being nudged along by its mother. A very informative zoo ranger was on hand to tell us quite a bit about the elephants - apart from the male and one other female 'rescue' elephant that is quite old, all the others are female and related, which reflects what happens in the wild. The zoo staff were quite pleased that the new baby is female so that she can also be kept - if it had been male then it would have had to be found a new home before very long.
It is probably not worth trying to give a blow-by-blow account of each enclosure we visited but just to show a series of photos which give highlights. The first part of the zoo was particularly attractive and we were surprised how much space most of the creature are given. In some of the older parts we saw later this was not always quite so.
At the rhino exhibit we were told by a ranger that the most endangered rhino is the black rhino and that there may well be more people visiting the zoo today than there are black rhinos alive in the whole world.
The latest development at the zoo is the Island Project in which several 'islands' are being set out with the wildlife from specific parts of the world. It has only opened very recently and is still being completed. It looks very different from the other areas! It does have one of the few additional items - a boat ride around the islands. This is especially popular and well-booked in advance. Since we are having plenty of boating experience at the moment we were not especially concerned at giving it a miss. Alice, however, was most keen to work out how it works as the boats carrying 15 people each, cruise around with not steerer. Eventually we could work out that a well-disguised steel rope at the bow is connected to a towing device under the water. It is really quite clever how it works especially as the route is very bendy. However, it seems that we missed taking a photo of a boat on the move, only of the rather more scenic static ones!
The rhinoceros hornbill is the icon for Cheater Zoo and just before lunch we did spot one - there were more to be seen later in the afternoon.
We bought some sandwiches from one of the food outlets (well, Jess opted for a burger!) and we chatted about our options for the afternoon. We decided to take the monorail from close to where we were to the other stop on the opposite side, in the far part of the other half of the zoo which we did not even start on in the morning. There was a short queue but id did not take too long before we were allowed aboard.
One of the play areas provides two tunnels that recreate life of burrowing animals. What's that strange creature in the dome?
By now the promised rain arrived, pretty much on its forecast timing. Most people were caught out and the kiosks did a roaring trade in umbrellas and plastic ponchos! Fortunately we had checked he weather before leaving and packed waterproofs in a rucksack. Smarty pants!
The main aquarium looks like it is one of the oldest parts of the zoo, perhaps even original, but shows its age and we found it very oppressive inside.
The giraffes were all inside being fed and checked so were not easy to photograph. We did just catch the very small giraffe with its mother, just a few weeks old.
None of our photos in the tropical building as most of the birds and creatures were behind very fine mesh. Although this is good for the human eye, our camera was confused and focused on the mesh rather than the interest behind! A better camera, or perhaps more, a better person behind the camera, might have made a better job!
We eventually made our way around the the entrance where we were tempted by the offer of fresh donuts! They came in either threes or fives, so someone had an extra one!
It was a surprise to realise that it was by now almost quarter to five and we set off back down to the boat. Looking at the size of the car park, our walk was perhaps not much more than twice that for those who parked their cars furthest away from the entrance!
Back at the boat, Jess was especially keen to remove her shoes and socks as they were soaking wet (her words - and true!) and Christine's feet needed washing in long wet grass before climbing aboard! As we failed to get a tv signal last night because of trees parking themselves in just the wrong place, we moved the boat about 100 metres, under the bridge and re-moored with a clear view. Success was the result - we were a bit worried about our failures of the previous two nights and wondered if we had done something wrong!
That's probably the tourist stuff done now - the reason why we came this way with the girls - and it is back to boating proper for the next few days. Or will it?
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