At the weekend, a family that has unofficially adopted me and I went to Blackpool Zoo. We had a great time, with lots of laughter. Here are some photos of the animals:
This peacock frightened the life out of me as I checked my phone before I’d even entered the zoo.
I saw my first ever Sea Lion show. The Californian Sea Lions (1).
Yesterday a good friend, her son, two of his friends and I went to Blackpool Zoo. It was raining heavily, but we didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits.
Blackpool Zoo is a superb Zoo, I can’t believe I’ve never visited it before. It is the perfect size, allowing you to see everything in a day at a stroll.
Blackpool Zoo has all the animals you’d expect in a Zoo (plus a few more) and you can get really close to them. The animals look happy and well looked after. Here are some photos from the day, along with my comments, click any photo to see the full size:
The Elephants – Indoors sheltering themselves from the rain.
The camels didn’t seem to mind the rain or the temperature that was significantly lower than their natural environment.
Blackpool Zoo has Amazonia an exhibit where you can walk freely in an enclosure with monkeys and other wildlife from South America. It transports you into a rain forest like environment and is where we saw these cheeky little monkeys.
I saw these gorgeous pink birds and just had to take a photo.
A white wallaby. I’ve never seen a wallaby in real life, they’re so cute.
The kangaroos were all taking shelter from the rain. The first time I’ve seen kangaroos. I don’t blame them for taking shelter from the rain, it was bucketing down at that point.
Sea Lions. The photo was a lucky shot, as they were weaving around and in and out of each other quite quickly. As if they were doing some sort of intricate and improvised dance in the water.
A giant in the Orangutan world – just look at the size of his face, never mind the rest of him.
I am particularly proud of this awesome photo:
This photo of a penguin is most probably the best photo I’ve ever taken. The penguin was swimming at great speed, although you wouldn’t have guested. I looked at this photo when I got home and it looks like it was taken by a professional. A total fluke.
Here’s even more photos:
Blackpool Zoo even has an exhibit of Farm Animals. These animals included two Shetland ponies, goats, donkeys, pigs and sheep (photo is of one of the sheep).
A pair of attention seeking otters. Wonderfully fun, playful and liked to upstage one another. I love the spirit of these animals.
Look how close we got to this tiger at Blackpool Zoo. In Chester Zoo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tiger, let alone been able to get close enough to appreciate its stripy beauty.
Another of the beautiful tiger. Blackpool Zoo have two tigers from what we saw. The tiger is more than slightly moist because of the rain.
Lion: *yawn* Me: I totally understand how you feel. I’ve walked around Blackpool Zoo all day.
This is how close we got to a Lion. Able to look in its eye and see the intelligence, along with the hunter instinct. He appeared to be eyeing us up as a snack. Blackpool Zoo had two male Lions living in the enclosure together from what I saw. They seemed pretty well bonded and one went and groomed the other while we watched.
Quickly becoming my favourite animal, the giraffes. What I love about giraffes is that every time I’ve politely called over to one (in different Zoos I might add), they come over. They look at me with their big black eyes and some times, if I’m really lucky, they let me take a photo before they walk off.
Another photo of the giraffes. I had politely called out to the one in the foreground.
Essential Info
Parking: There is an onsite car park, with overflow parking. It is charged reasonably at £2.50 for the day.
Admission Prices: Vary throughout the year, but are cheaper if you buy them online.
Facilities: Toilets, two gift shops, a cafe, a Starbucks Coffee at the entrance, a small train that takes passengers (for a charge) from one end of the Zoo to the other, an indoor children’s play area (separate to Zoo and doesn’t require Zoo entry), experience days.
Chester Zoo VS Blackpool Zoo
I couldn’t help but compare my many visits to Chester Zoo with my experience in Blackpool Zoo. Chester Zoo could learn a few lessons from Blackpool Zoo including:
Have more of the bigger and more popular animals. Chester Zoo’s selection of big and popular animals is pitiful when compared with Blackpool Zoo.
Ensure good viewing opportunities for visitors in enclosures. Blackpool Zoo have done this really well. It makes visitors feel that they can get really close to the animals. Chester Zoo hasn’t got this right.
Make it realistic to visit everywhere in the Zoo in one day. Currently to see everything in Chester Zoo you need about a day and a half of rushing around.
We had a brilliant time at Blackpool Zoo and I would highly recommend it to you all.
The Christmasaurus is a children’s book that combines two of my favourite things: dinosaurs and Christmas.
In this review, I am reviewing The Musical Edition which includes the fully illustrated (illustrations by Shane Devries) hardback book and The Soundtrack that Fletcher wrote and recorded to accompany the story.
Singers on the soundtrack include: Fletcher, his wife, his sister and even Santa! What’s great about the CD is that the book prompts you when to play each track.
The unique combination of written story and music, really does add to the experience.
You’ll also enjoy playing the CD on its own. Here’s the track list:
It Must Be Christmas Time
2. Dig, Diggedy Dig (The Digging Song)
3. The Christmasaurus
4. Thin Ice
5. Someone More Than Me
6. The Nice List
7. I’ve Been a Good Girl
8. I Believe It Could
9. I Ho, Ho, Hope It’s Santa
10. I Love Creatures
11. Christmas Makes Me Sick
12. Afraid of Heights (my absolute favourite song on the soundtrack!)
13. Don’t Know What It Is
14. If You Believe
Now, back to the book. The characters include: William Trundle (the main character who is wheelchair enabled), Bob Trundle (William’s dad), Santa, Lots of Elves (who speak always in rhyme), Brenda Payne (I nicknamed her Brenda The Bully at the beginning of the book), Brenda’s mum, Hunter and his dog Growler, Stuffy (a toy made by Santa) and of course the one of a kind Christmasaurus.
The plot is imaginative, brilliantly described and magical. It’s a bit predictable for an adult, but young children will be captivated and plead/beg/demand another chapter is read after the last. The illustrations are superb, detailed and provide support to children’s imaginations.
The Christmasaurus is the ideal bedtime story for young children in the run up to Christmas. It is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.
On Saturday some good friends and I visited Chester Zoo. It was a belated birthday celebration event. It was lovely to see the friends and the Watts family that came along. I was super excited to see the new Islands Exhibit.
The day before I got this email below, telling me about the return of the dinosaurs. Last time I visited Chester Zoo was 4 years ago, when the dinosaurs were last there.
The day before I got this email about the return of the Dinosaurs, on the very day of our visit. I love dinosaurs! Yey!
I love the dinosaurs and had no idea that they were even coming back. That’s lucky I immediately thought and then remembered that I’d recently burned the Hot Damn candle created by Dorothy Morrison (for more info on this see Dorothy Morrison’s Wickedly Wonderful Magical Mystery Packages). This isn’t the only lucky thing that’s happened to me recently, but that as they say: is another story.
Here are some photos from the day trip to Chester Zoo:
Islands Exhibit Sign
Islands Exhibit – Was well designed but lacked good signage to direct visitors.
Islands Exhibit – Mask with smoke.
Me in a makeshift tent on the Islands Exhibit.
Islands Exhibit- Hogs (1).
Islands Exhibit- Hogs (2).
A ginormous exotic plant.
The Elephants.
A Donkey.
The best photo of the day – a butterfly in the Butterfly House.
The Giraffes (1).
The Giraffes (2).
The Chimpanzees (1).
The Chimpanzees (2).
Turtles having a Mother’s Meeting.
The Flamingos.
Dinosaurs have returned! The dinosaurs and display were exactly same as we saw 4 years ago.
Lioness.
Lion.
Penguins.
Fountain.
I finally got a photo of the Speckled Bear (1). I tried last time I visited the zoo (4 years ago), but the bear walked off and went behind a bush before I could get a photo.
I was fortunate to see and watch an Eastern Black Rhino majestically eating. As I watched and videoed I reflected the sad realisation that generations to come might never see Black Rhinos alive. Nor will they see the thousands of animals that are already extinct. I reflected on the cruelty of human poachers. Poachers have hunted Black Rhinos close to extinction, hunting them for their horns and for sport.
Here is an edited video of an Eastern Black Rhino’s eating:
Edited 30/05/16 @ 15:25 – Changed information about Black Rhinos. There are two subspecies of Black Rhino, the Western Black Rhino and the Eastern Black Rhino.
The Western Black Rhino that has been declared extinct in the wild and there are only a few left in captivity, all of which are the same gender, so they will be unable to breed.
Chester Zoo has the Eastern Black Rhinos. There are only 500 Eastern Black Rhinos left in the wild and a good number in Zoos around the world.
The post above has been changed to reflect this fact checked information.
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Sunday 29 May 2016
About
Antony Simpson - Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.
Author of eight books.
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