When we set out on our life afloat in 2017, one of the must visit places in our minds was Chester and the zoo. And when we realised just how close we could moor our excitement grew. There is 48 hour visitor mooring at Caughall Bridge 134, just 10 minutes walk from the main entrance.
And the public bridlepath divides the zoo site into two halves so you can take an evening stroll to get a sneak preview of the milder mannered animals. The elephant house is also open to the public free of charge during opening hours, just in case you needed your appetite whetting.
But that’s enough of my phone camera photography, the following morning we were more or less first in the queue with Eric’s long lens to capture our day. The lockie at Chester staircase, suggested we head straight towards the islands where the tiger lives. We followed his advice, although the zoo guide was a bit more pessimistic….. ooooo you’ll be lucky, he’s well hidden today. Glad we listened to the lockie not the zoo-ie and even more glad there was a thick sheet of glass between us.
We also struck gold with the tree kangaroo, who apparently rarely comes out to play
The Black rhino obviously doesn’t “play” and just stood and stared at us.
One of the things we enjoyed about Chester zoo were the number of “houses” that are home to free flying birds
The rich planting made it feel like We were trekking through exotic forest, we had to stop and say hello to this magnificent rooster who is a red jungle fowl, the Adam to all our domesticated chickens
Some creatures were much harder to find, the cheetahs were obviously having a duvet day, but some were hiding in plain sight.
But the chameleon had a hard choice, blend with the tree or background
Thankfully the Jaguars were spotted and weren’t roaming the car park
But the black panther-who is actually just a jaguar with a black coat, was patrolling his grounds
We tried to pick up a penguin
But I changed my mind and decided what I really wanted was a baby elephant
Sadly I’m not sure it would fit on the boat with its mum. We could have stayed at the zoo until 5pm but after 6 hours we had walked our socks off, seen far more amazing creatures than I have shared with you.
the orangutan were hilarious and very cute, they certainly knew when it was time to chill out
and the lions were basking amongst their savannah. And we were also ready for to sit down. Yes we both have mixed feelings about keeping animals in captivity, and who are we to recognise if an animal is happy or not,
but as far as Chester zoo goes, we had a great day, and in my simple mind I think most of the animals were enjoying life as well.
Ps we think there are 3 leaf insects in the photo