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After a lie-in today, we headed just out of Mansfield to the local Zoo. We were a bit confused when we first arrived - the 'zoo' appeared to be just a house with a wildlife park sign stuck on the front! When we went in, we were told that we could feed lots of the animals there, so we bought 2 buckets of feed for our wander around. Then we had to walk though the living room of the house, where the family's bored looking son sat playing on his Xbox, to get to the animals!
An unusual set-up, with part of the house kept private for the family to use and the café being run from the family kitchen, but it turned out to be an incredible place. Our first spots included two peacocks showing off to each other and a few turkeys, before we arrived at the monkeys, which we could feed. The clever creatures climbed up onto the bars of their enclosure and stuck their hands through to take the food from the spade - apparently we weren't allowed to hand-feed them as they bite!
We walked around the site and stopped to feed the two camels, Basil and Cybil (great names!) and some deer through the fence. We thought this was good fun, but then we came to the main attraction - about twenty kangaroos, some with joeys, that roamed free around the park. One came over for a feed, followed by another that bounced over from the other side of the park when he realised it was dinnertime! I never thought we'd get as close as we did to kangaroos, and feeding them was a unique and memorable experience. There were also deer roaming around the park, and once I'd fed them, they followed me around the park, over the bridge and all the way to the exit - they must be used to getting fed more than I had left in the bucket! Another family stopped to feed them so we seized our chance and escaped before they ended up in the car with us!
We drove back into Mansfield for lunch, then back to the zoo for Lion feeding! We also saw the monkeys being fed (very entertaining!) and the alligator, Tim, who seemed more interesting in hissing at his keeper than eating the meat he was offered. Apparently, the keeper fell into the pool with the alligator a few weeks ago and managed to survive with all of his limbs intact - lucky guy!
Back at the resort, we headed to the pool for a dip. A really good day out!
- comments
Maria Bailey Good memories of a truly fantastic and memorable day out. The zoo was amazing. We will never forget it. You really seemed to have a good rapport with the deer too! We learnt such a lot about the wildlife. Very 'Wild at Heart' - that programme will always remind me of our visit to Mansfield Zoo.