Despite a much smaller bed than what we are normally used to, a hot night and the odd train rumbling past, we had slept surprisingly well. We got up, got ready and headed for breakfast.
One of the reasons I like the Holiday Inn Express brand is that breakfast is included. It is nothing fancy and choices are limited, but you would need to be an extremely picky eater to go hungry. We both had coffee and orange juice. Graham had yoghurt with berry compote followed by a cooked breakfast. I had granola with almond milk followed by baked beans, sausage, and hash brown. This set us up nicely for the day.
After breakfast, we headed back up to the room to pick up what we needed for the day. I had checked before breakfast on the best way to get to Chester Zoo. Getting there by public transport seemed to take forever. A quick check on the Uber app established that it did not cost much more than two bus fares. That was not a hard decision to make. I ordered the Uber once we got to the ground floor. It arrived about 5 minutes later. We had a nice clear run to the zoo.
As everything had gone so smoothly, we arrived way before opening time. We got our tickets and were able to go through the turnstiles to the entrance plaza. We found a seat at a picnic bench and waited for rope drop.
We decided to start with the relatively new Heart of Africa area. It turned out later that this was probably a tactical error, but I am still glad that we did it that way. First up was the meerkat enclosure and they are always entertaining to watch. Next to this was a pod with flamingos. Opposite was a huge enclosure for black rhinos, but they were not in evidence. They have two free flight aviaries in Heart of Africa and we spent some time in the larger of the two. Then we had a quick look at the porcupines and bat-eared foxes. Their enclosure was part of the picnic area. Talk about serious cuteness overload. Opposite this was the rhino house and we did get to see a black rhino at last. We checked out a number of other outdoor enclosures, but most of their inhabitants were hiding from the hot weather. We were however lucky and managed to spot the African wild dogs.
After this we had pit stop and had something to drink. They do refillable mugs that give you free refills for the rest of the day. We invested in a couple of those, and both had a Fanta. Then we headed for the giraffe house. A couple of giraffes were hanging out there. When they moved on, so did we. Next up was the Hidden Savannah. This is an indoor exhibit with various animals that live in the dessert like various rodents, snakes, bullfrogs, and turtles. They also had an enclosure with locusts. Part of the enclosure was a jeep that people could sit in to see the locusts up close. As I am not a big friend of creepy crawlies, I passed on this particular experience. It was nice to be in the shade for a while.
Once we had cooled down, we checked out the mixed savannah, which is home to the giraffes, zebras, antelopes, and ostriches. The giraffes were being fed at that time, and we got a good look at them. We stayed in this area for a little while watching the giraffes and then we moved on. We saw some warthogs, dik-diks, various vultures and an eagle owl. There was also a smaller walkthrough aviary with mainly lovebirds and a few other colourful birds. This brought us back to where the flamingos were and we moved on to the next area.
We headed to the yellow zone next, and this is quite spread out. In the end, we did this in three parts. We checked out the monkey house first. Behind this was an area with numerous enclosures for various miniature monkeys. At this stage, we crossed over to The Islands, which featured animals from Australia and the Far East. This area also features a boat ride that is included in the ticket. This was where we were headed. On the way, we saw Prevost’s squirrels, Visayan wart pigs, dusky pademelons and tree kangaroos. They were all new to us and there was some real cuteness overload. The last area before he boat ride was the southern cassowary enclosure. Those birds, which are essentially living dinosaurs, we had come across before.
The boat ride was set up for serious crowds. Thankfully, there were none of them that day. They were loading one boat when we got to the loading dock, and we were on the next boat. We did enjoy the boat ride as most of it was shady and the downtime was very much appreciated on a hot day. For the most part, we just saw ducks. We came past the enclosure for the Visayan warty pigs, but they were in a different part of the enclosure. We did see a southern cassowary and also a couple of bantengs. I think if we had a lengthy wait, we would have been disappointed, but with a minimal wait, it was a very enjoyable opportunity for some time out.
Once we had finished the boat ride, we went to check out the Sumatran tigers, but they had gone for a nap somewhere. The same was true for the remaining animals in this area. We decided to get some lunch at Manado Street Kitchen. This is advertised as southeast Asian cuisine, but for the most part, the menu consisted of fairly standard theme park fare. Graham had the Manado Cheeseburger, which was a beef burger topped with cheese sauce, pickled pink onions, lettuce, coriander, and lime mayo which was served with fries. I had the chicken tenders with fries. We both refilled our cups. Graham had some more Fanta and I had some Coke.
After lunch, we headed to the Monsoon Forest, which is home to orangutans, gibbons, fish, Sunda gharials, birds, tortoises, reptiles, invertebrates, and frogs across a wide variety of habitats. The first area was home to the orangutans on one side and aquariums with fish, insects, and reptiles on the other. There were some scary looking bugs that are apparently native to Singapore. This was something I really did not need to know. I thought the orangutans had all disappeared for a nap, too. Suddenly, Graham tapped me on the shoulder. There was an orangutan right by the window watching us. This was amazing. We then moved on and there were multiple walkthrough aviaries. We spent a fair amount of time at Monsoon Forest.
When we were ready to move on, we headed back towards the yellow zone. A lot of the animals had found a shady spot somewhere, but we did see a giant anteater, some capybaras, and an Andean bear. Then we headed onwards to the blue zone. The first animals we came across where the bush dogs. This was another case of cuteness overload. The blue zone was the area where the red pandas were. Sadly, they were not feeling sociable that day. He next time we go to Chester Zoo, we will go there first in the hope that we will see them. I did however see my name on the enclosure. Our luck at that stage seemed to have run out. We did not see much more in that area apart from penguins and some Asian birds in another free flight aviary. At this stage, we felt we were about done. We never made it to the green zone. Instead, we decided to check out the final part of the yellow zone on the way to the exit.
Shortly after we turned around and headed back into the general direction of the exit, there was an announcement asking people to make their way towards the exit as the zoo was due to close in 30 minutes. We had a look at the elephant and greater one-horned rhino enclosures on the way and then we headed out.
As we were on no timetable, we had planned to take the bus back. However, we had been waiting for a while and there was no sign of the bus. I checked the Uber app, and this was in the same price range as it had been in the morning. We decided on an Uber and had a 7-minute wait. As we were pulling out of the car park, the bus was pulling in. We had a really nice driver. It did not take long until we were back at the hotel. We headed straight to the room. Unfortunately, our keycard was no longer working. I left Graham with my stuff and headed down to reception to get this fixed.
Neither of us was in mood for food. We just chilled out in our room. I had a craving for sparkling water. I headed down to the bar and got us a bottle each. Graham fell asleep relatively quicky, but I spent a couple of hours playing a game on my iPad and reading. Then I fell asleep, too.
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