Reflections on the puddle of life

We’ve been having some really grand days out recently. Our latest trip finally took us to the zoo (my daughter has now stopped nagging!) and this time we went to the South Lakes Wildlife Park, which is near Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria (which you might know as the Lake District). Now I’m not overly fond of zoos; I don’t like to see animals cooped up that belong in the wild, but this one, as zoos go, was really nice. The enclosures were large and the animals had plenty of space. There were no orangutans with sacks over their heads, which always upsets me, and some animals had complete freedom to roam within the confines of the park. Plus, all the animals looked well cared for which is always a good sign. The zoo is pretty small, but well laid out, quite interactive, and split into two levels with upper and lower walkways meaning that you need to view each enclosure twice. They also have lots of activities on during the day including feeding the animals which, with the exception of the tigers, the visitors can get involved with.

One of the first enclosures we encountered was the giraffes. I absolutely love giraffes, they’re so elegant and peaceful.

We could view the giraffes from both the ground level and at head-height level which made for an interesting experience, but by far the best and most memorable part of the day was feeding the giraffes. We were given some leaves and the giraffes came over and twisted them out of our hands with their long, rough, flexible tongues. Both my kids were too scared to do it, my daughter kept pulling her hand away and the poor giraffe was desperately chasing after it, so I had to do all the feeding. Oh, the sacrifices we parents make

A number of creatures had free range of the zoo. This took a little getting used to, especially for my daughter who is nervous around animals anyway. There were ducks and peacocks and emus generally wandering around the park. Emus are as big as an average adult, but with more attitude, and a bit terrifying!

But by far the most free roaming of all were the lemurs. We spotted both the black and white ruffed lemur and ring-tailed lemur on our travels, at times a little close for comfort (add lemurs to the list of animals my daughter is now terrified of). The black and white ruffed lemurs seemed quite aggressive, though they didn’t bother anything other than other lemurs. At times the park resonated with the strange barking-coughing noise they make. The ring-tailed lemurs, on the other hand, were gentle visitors, until it came to lunch, that is! This little guy:

decided to join us at our picnic, much to the dismay of my kids. Poor things, they clung so desperately to their jam sandwiches that in the end we had to go to the indoor picnic area. But the lemur was one of two really funny highlights of the day. Watching my husband in a tug of war over a packet of crisps had the kids in hysterics!

The second funny point occurred in the vulture enclosure. Yes, there’s nothing between you and the vultures but it wasn’t the vultures that were funny. That was the parrots. For a start, I think they were a little bit bonkers. This one, for example, seemed intent on showing everyone its glorious wings. Or perhaps it had B.O. Who knows?

This little fella, you might have guessed, isn’t in the best of moods. It seemed he didn’t like my husband much as, a moment after taking this photo, it took a sneaky nip at him but fortunately missed. My husband didn’t see, but my daughter did and she found it hilarious! Then, when we’d exited the enclosure, it flew over to the fence where my husband was standing and squawked and squawked at him, again much to my daughter’s amusement!

After the zoo we took advantage of the good weather and tried to find a nice beach to spend the rest of the day, thus finally satisfying the other of my daughter’s required visits. Unfortunately we hadn’t accounted for the vast, desolate wasteland that is Morecambe Bay (all beach, no sea) so that trip proved abortive, though I did see Blackpool Tower on the other side of the coast first and earned the obligatory 50p. Instead we meandered our way towards home and took a teeny detour to Lake Windermere.

There’s something about the Lake District which is so peaceful and tranquil and right, I can’t explain it. Perhaps it’s the soft rippling of the water, or the dominance of green, or the way the land unfolds, bulging and sagging like a giant’s rumpled blanket. However it’s accounted for, the one thing that’s certain is that it’s beautiful. We had a bit of time to spare so we took a boat trip, munching on the obligatory Kendal mint cake on the way. Sadly this made my son to sick on the way home, a less than satisfactory end to an otherwise perfect day. I leave you with a couple of snaps of the lake to whet your appetite. Enjoy