The layout of the zoo was very nice. The enclosures were large with lots of things for the animals to do all with holes for them to get indoors. As predicted we saw lots of monkeys and it wasn’t long before we came across a couple of gibbons up to some monkey business. Layla asked innocently what they were doing. With a wry smirk on his face Rob told her they were dancing. We hurried along to a cage with some more acrobatic monkeys.
We passed a Zebu in a field, a pit of prairie dogs and more enclosures of monkeys (colobos and langurs) before we decided to have our picnic lunch in front of the leopard house. There were two spotted leopards inside lazing about in the sun before getting up to show off a bit. They are the most beautiful animals I have ever seen but I wouldn’t want to meet one without the thick safety glass!
We finished our lunch and carried on. The passed a field of odd looking Capybaras, Maras and Tapirs to a turtle house where there turtles of all sizes and ages shuffling around. There were a couple of lions behind the turtle house in a huge enclosure, several camels in a field beyond and a big tree with some chimpanzees on it. We finally came across the Gorilla house where we saw the most powerful ape I had ever seen. He came right up to the window and sat there looking at all the monkeys looking at him (us that is…) before wandering off and to have a play on the lawn.
Around the back of the park we came across a huge sandy area where a group of three large elephants were marching right in front of us. It was just before feeding time and one of them must have been feeling a little peckish. He stuck his truck through the fence and was ripping the grass off the bank just in front of us and shoving it into his mouth. We were so close we could have almost touched his trunk. Will was fascinated by the elephants and we stayed watching for a while.
There was a huge building not far away with a large area out the front and sure enough there were three tall giraffes walking around. One of them was licking one of the large metal poles holding up the fence with his huge blue tongue. A large trail of saliva wafted in front of the crowd and I watched with amusement as an American tourist walked obliviously through it.
We stopped for ice creams and walked over to the tortoise house where some really old tortoises were mooching around. Not far from them was the small monkey house where a collection of the smallest monkeys in the world were bouncing around the walls. My favourite was a little dark grey marmoset with a huge white Merv Hughes-like moustache!
Lynn was starting to get all monkeyed-out so we hurried along. We took a quick look at the sealions, the penguins and the flamingos before arriving at the pit of my favourite little animal – the Meerkat. Sure enough there were a couple running around and it wasn’t long before they sat in their trademark pose. So cute!
Lynn took Lorna to the kiddie playground while the rest of us took a final look around. Rob gave Will and Seth a skipping rope to play with and they ran around together laughing each holding one end of it.
Back at home we had an early dinner and played with bubbles on the lawn. Layla was saying “oh my goodness” every time I blew a huge bubble for her and it wasn’t long before I heard Will start to say it too. Lorna and the kids went home and after going for a nice walk around Darley Abbey we put Will to bed. Lynn was tired so she offered to stay at home with Will while we went out on the town.
Pete took us around to Rob’s house who gave us a quick tour around. He took us to his local ‘Ye Olde Spa Inne’ where we had a nice pint of Pedigree. We drove back to Darley Abbey to visit ‘The Abbey’ – a nice pub located in a lovely old church. While we were there we met up with Lucy and had a couple of pints of different sorts. We went our separate ways and Lou, Pete and I stayed up and had a dram of whiskey and some maltesers.
