We're all going to the Zoo

Bristol Zoo exactly.

Last Sunday was Tracey's birthday. She had wanted to go somewhere and as Rhys' Aunty Annette and his cousin's Jess and Charlotte were down at Nanny and Grampy's it was easy to arrange for them to come over to Bristol for the day.

An early start for us from Yeovil still saw us arrive at Sam's nearly an hour after Annette and the girls.

After unpacking and grabbing a drink we piled into the cars and headed up to Clifton and Bristol Zoo.

Although there wasn't a queue outside the zoo the car park was already full by the time we arrived and so we parked up on the Downs before walking down to the Zoo. For once we had very little trouble parking.

For such a warm day it was really surprising that there wasn't that much of a queue to get in and once in the place was busy but not overly packed.

We took our time as we weren't in a hurry and by the time we had to leave had seen just over half of the animals.

We started off with the flamingos before looking for lions, who seemed to be hiding away. Fruit bats were next before we reached the reptile house via some very big tortoises and friends.

Rhys and I went in to have a look at the snakes, frogs, lizards, crocodiles and other reptiles. Everyone else went and sat on the grass to enjoy the sunshine. Can't think why!

Now I'm sure that I'll get in trouble for the next set of pictures but there are no pictures of snakes!!!

 
After the reptile house we visited the spiders and creepy crawlies and then the aquarium.

A bit of lunch was called for so we stopped off at the cafe and grabbed a bite to eat.

The afternoon began with monkeys. Lots of monkeys.

At one point we got separated from Rhys' Aunty and cousins. While we waited for them to find us we stopped off to listen to the talk about the lemurs. It was really crowded in the enclosure and took a while to get in and out as the doors were in an airlock type configuration where you had to close on door before the other could be opened. Stops the little rascals escaping.

Our next stop was the gorilla enclosure. At the point that we reached them they were fast asleep because of the heat. When we passed through a bit later they were moving about a bit.

The last couple of stops were the penguins and seals.

The seals were wonderful. Especially the really big one that kept barking at everyone.

Eventually it was time to start making our way to the exit as we needed to leave. Before we did we stopped to get ice-cream. Rhys and I popped to an ice-cream van to get a couple of 99s (ice cream cone with a chocolate flake for those that don't know what this is).

Rhys' cousins decided when we returned that they wanted to sample our ice-creams. After allowing Jess to have a couple of licks of mine I made the mistake of handing it to her and well...

Our trip ended with a visit to the shop to buy some souvenirs but not before we paid one last visit to the lion enclosure where there was a bit more activity.

Rhys had a lovely day with Aunty Annette and the girls. The zoo wasn't crowded so was a great place to go on a hot, sunny day.