A day out at Dartmoor Zoo

Last Saturday was a fairly sunny day and James was down here visiting, so we decided to go to Dartmoor Zoo for the day. My Dad got tickets back in January with the idea of taking me & the girls in mind, but the weather has been so awful we haven’t had the opportunity to drive over there and use it before now.

We drove the scenic route over the moor to get there, and it was so beautiful, I’m glad we chose to go that way.

The film “We Bought a Zoo” is (loosely) based on the story of Dartmoor Zoo.

They have a lovely selection of animals there; Georgie and Lydia were fascinated. I loved the Lynx who was sunning himself and posing perfectly for photos.

Georgie adores meerkats, so she was delighted to see so many there, including some very adorable baby ones! we had to drag her away from the meerkats every time she laid eyes on them.

We were lucky enough to see feeding time for the tigers, who were out enjoying the sunshine all day. One of the tigers refused to do what the handlers were asking of it for ages; they wanted her to go inside while they cleared their area and artistically draped animal body parts around for them to have for their lunch, but the tiger just strolled about and refused to do what she was told until she wanted to… Typical cat! The whole crowd thought this performance was hilarious and the zoo staff were clearly amused and frustrated simultaneously!

Georgie was brave enough to stroke a tortoise in the Close Encounters bit, and very proud of herself for managing it.

Before we left, we managed to catch the falconry display. I love watching birds of prey do their thing and this show was a nice little one with three different birds including a lovely looking barn owl. The spiel from the falconer was very good, but I must admit to being distracted by my nutty two year old who kept changing her mind about which group of children she wanted to sit with, and giving people handfuls of grass. She was very concerned that one little girl had a hood but hadn’t put it up, they had two or three little conversations about it with Georgie asking her to put it up and the other girl refusing because it wasn’t raining. Half the crowd were watching Georgie’s antics just as much as the birds!

We ate lunch in the Zoo restaurant and bought some souvenirs from the gift shop; a lovely wooden jigsaw and a sweet miniature pair of binoculars for Georgie, and a soft toy monkey for each of them. Georgie was very concerned that they should have matching toys but her first choice was a pair of rubber snakes that wouldn’t have stood up to Lydia chomping on them! She was delighted when I got the monkeys down and offered those instead though, and is now in love with it. All the hands & feet Velcro together, so you can often see Georgie walking about the house with a monkey dangling around her neck.

Georgie’s monkey was actually twice as expensive as Lydia’s… She had it at the top of the path as we were leaving, but had lost it by the time we had got to the carpark (where we successfully went on a geocache hunt). James had to dash back up on a monkey hunt and ended up at the gift shop buying a replacement. The tags were taken off before he got back to the car so Georgie has no idea she’s onto Monkey no. 2 already! Some other child must have picked it up on the way out before James went looking; it wasn’t long until the zoo closed so there were loads of people walking back down the hill to their cars. Georgie was very pleased that Daddy “found” her monkey.

We returned home, tired but happy. Georgie spent dinner, bathtime & bedtime telling Grandma and Grandad all about her exciting day and everything she saw and ate!

Dartmoor Zoo has a really nice feel to it; it is a friendly place, a bit rustic, and utterly charming… A lovely day out.

Related Posts

A family day out to Makers Central

Valentine's Day Bookmarks - Free Printable

Valentine's Day - Free Cross Stitch Patterns

Disney Valentine's Day Colouring Sheets & Cards -…