Over the years that I've been a solo camper I've visited several zoos while on my camping travels; a couple of these have been very well set out and very interesting and I've been very impressed.
Africa Alive at Kessingland in Norfolk is dedicated completely to animals from Africa, and one of the best areas of the zoo is Lemur Encounters, a huge open enclosure where the public can walk among the many ring-tailed lemurs which live there. There's no extra charge to go in and you can stay as long as you like while the lemurs leap in and out of the trees and play around you. My time spent in there was undoubtedly the highlight of my visit to that particular zoo.
Banham Zoo, again in Norfolk, is the sister zoo to Africa Alive but has a more diverse range of animals. One of the nicest exhibits is the Province of the Snow Cat which houses the zoo's breeding pair of snow leopards and features rock faces and a meandering alpine stream. The highlight of my visit to that particular zoo was the 'meerkat feeding experience' where I accompanied a keeper into the meerkat enclosure to feed the little animals and spend some time with them; they were fascinating, comical and very cute little creatures, it was brilliant having them swarming all over me and some of them even allowed me to stroke them.
Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens, a few miles from Yarmouth, is based in the 250-year old landscaped gardens of Thrigby Hall and is reputedly renowned for its collection of Asian mammals, birds and reptiles. Although I enjoyed my visit there I didn't think it was as interesting as Africa Alive and Banham; while I would return to those two zoos I wouldn't be in a hurry to go back to Thrigby Hall.
Amazona Zoo on the outskirts of Cromer is home to over 200 animals and birds from tropical South America. Attractions include daily 'feed the animal' events, a spider house with five varieties of tarantula, and a guinea pig village. While I found it better than Thrigby Hall it still wasn't as good as Africa alive and Banham.
The Welsh Mountain Zoo, set high in the hills above Colwyn Bay in North Wales, is also a botanical garden with numerous flower beds, rose gardens, herbaceous borders, woodland walks, and collections of hardy and tropical plants, some of which are rare and endangered. The flora were as much of an attraction to me as the fauna and it's a place I will certainly go back to in the near future.
Well, this post concludes the A - Z Challenge; thank you to all those who took the trouble to stop by, read and comment on my ramblings, I hope I haven't bored you too much. And now I've finished the challenge maybe I can finally find the time to write about my Easter camping trip!
