Little rant before I start this article: I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m getting a little sick of the changeable weather. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sunny days, especially as they make life so much easier in the summer holidays, but this whole rain-in-the-morning, glorious-sunshine-in-the-afternoon thing is getting old, least of all because I never know what to wear in the morning! And the rain today; atrocious.
Anyway, apologies about the pointless and random rant, but if you can’t go for it on your own blog, where can you?
My nephew: more interested in food than animals!
Making a very tenuous link between my passionate views on the weather and the actual topic of this article, we had a beautiful, sunny day yesterday, and so Colin and I decided to take the girls to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay, with his mum, brother and sister and their families as well. What a fabulous day!
The Location
I love the Welsh Mountain Zoo. I rate Chester Zoo and Knowsley Safari Park as well, but the one thing the Colwyn Bay has the others doesn’t is an absolutely stunning location. The zoo’s set in the mountains above Colwyn Bay and, on a good day, you can see right across to Snowdonia, Anglesey, and right across past Chester and into the northwest of England.
Aren’t you there to see animals? Why are you bothered about the scenery surrounding the zoo?
Yeah, I hear you throwing out those questions. The answer is, I don’t know, I just think it adds a special something to the day out. It’s just nice, picnicking in the open grassy area by the penguin show with blue skies, sun shining, panoramic views.
The Animals and Shows
Although the zoo isn’t as large as whilst perhaps not as large as Chester and Knowsley, and perhaps isn’t home to as extensive a range of animals it does have a good variety of species, and definitely enough to keep kids happy and busy for a long time.
The penguins are definitely one of my favourite attractions – I remember coming to the zoo with my extended family when I was a kid, leaning too far over the tank(?) they’re kept in and having them bite at my then long, dangling hair! I think they’re so quirky and comical, and I’d absolutely recommend the Penguins’ Playtime show, in which they waddle around the audience so you can see them up close.
Lily’s favorite was the sea lion show, but her cousins preferred the chimps. I really enjoyed the presentation on the chimps, except for the rather embarrassing part where Esme started screaming for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL (Fed? Check. Clean? Check. Warm? Check? Loved and un-abused? Check. So what’s your bloody problem?!) and I had to make an ungraceful and highly conspicuous exit.
What else is there?
After the kids had had their fill of the animals, they were more than happy to amuse themselves on the play area for a while. The great thing about nieces and nephews is they are great at looking after the younger kids (for example, Lily), giving their parents (for example, me) a bit of a break!
We opted to take our own food because, as a family, we’re quite cheap, but I had a sneaky look at the food on offer in a couple of places on site and it did look pretty good. The jacket potatoes with tuna and salad certainly made my limp, slightly soggy and squashed cheese sandwiches look a bit pathetic.
TOP TIP: This zoo is great if you don’t drive! It offers a FREE minibus service from Colwyn Bay train station, so if you can get yourself there, you’re sorted!
