The New Years Day trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park is now a lovely tradition. A new one since the world changed. Life is about creating new memories and not being completely stuck in the past. New Year Day is also the perfect time to go. Get there when it opens and you virtually have the park to yourself for an hour or so. Takes the anxiety out of the visit. Leave as the crowds arrive.

My photos don’t do the Park justice. It’s time to upgrade from the camera phone. Keep filling the coin jar. Much scouring of the second hand pages is required.

So many animals. He loves the two Giant Otters. So playful. And so inquisitive. The Lion Pack. The Rhinos.

An elusive Amur Leopard.

Newly rescued and re-homed Brown Bears from Japan.

Unbelievably cute Squirrel Monkeys.

The Polar Bears are one of his favourites. Until you have seen one you don’t appreciate the size and power of these majestic creatures.

The final part of the walk round the park takes us through a small wood to the Baboons and Painted Dogs. If you remember the Jelly Beam Roulette Challenge was who could spot the elusive dogs first. My strategy was to take us down the wrong path then before our son realised sprint off towards the dogs. Unfortunately a perfectly timed peloton breakaway left me trailing. To compound the misery the elusive dogs today decided to sit right next to the fence nearest the path. Game over.

So we come to the main event. The Battle for Helms Deep. It’s the Jelly Beam from hell. Skunk Spray. 2 litres of water later and it finally stays down. If I ever meet the kind soul who invented that one……..

43 thoughts on “New Years Day”

  4. Wish I had something to offer that might help you along the way but I’m following, empathising and sympathising but hopefully lending a bit of support along the way (albeit almost entirely childish, utterly useless stuff but it gets us through!)

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      1. The silly stuff and completely childish belly-laughter will get you through anything and everything and keep your family together. Even when things feel so bad you can’t imagine anything being remotely funny – something or someone will pop up and say otherwise 🙂

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  6. This is a great way to bond with your child while he is young. Books to do that. But you can’t always stay in and read. It’s nice to get out and do something once in a while.

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  8. We have a seal sanctuary here and it is awesome. The last time we went to a zoo, Hubby and I wanted to let all the animals out, the conditions were that bad. Shortly after our visit, (and I hasten to add nothing to do with us though I would happily have complained) the zoo was closed due to inadequate care and habitats.
    If you are ever in Dorset, Monkeyworld is well worth a visit.

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  9. Sounds like a nice trip! We did a similar one to the aquarium the same way – got there first and stayed for an hour or two until we saw the agitation – then it’s time to go! Glad you and your son had a good time!

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  13. Oh those Jelly Bean designers are just cruel!

    Ah, our zoo is so small. It’s free, so I won’t complain, but it’s small. Milwaukee’s got a lovely zoo, but it’s always crowded, and our sons have no patience for animals. Makes planning a trip for just Blondie pretty tough. 😦

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    1. It must be tough trying to balance that. Our zoos are expensive but some are great. In Switzerland we had two favourites. A small, cheap but lovely one in Bern. A big but wonderful one in Zurich. The Zurich one had a really large building with an indoor rain forest, heat exotic birds and animals roaming, stairs to take you into the tree canopy). If we were closer Blondie would be more than welcome to join our zoo trips.

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