Wingham 13 August 2020

After our first family lunch out earlier this week, we decided to go for a Family trip to Wingham - one of Mums choices as I have been watching the videos from Wingham during lockdown and really wanted to go back in person! (Plus they now have a couple of giraffes - one of my favourites!!

My first challenge was driving there using the sat nav in the car! OK, the first challenge was working out how to program it without bothering to read the instructions!! The first route we programmed had to be changed due to  a road closure, but I actually enjoyed driving and am sort of angry with myself for now having an automatic before! I also found that the car has a 6 speed gear box! I got into 5th easily - but it kept going!! I think my excitement woke Andy up!!

Timing wise we arrived a little early, but once we'd masked up and walked from where I'd abandoned the car, we were in on time and ready for a comfort stop to start with!  The first animal was a peacock heading for a picnic area! Those birds are basically pigs! We started with the Chimps, but they wouldn't recognise Mikey as one so he got to leave the dancing chimp and carry on our tour! I then stuck him behind a lemur photo opportunity, but the walk through is currently closed and the few lemurs out were pretty much flaked out! As liberating a lemur was not possible I insisted on visiting the penguins next - and either my sense of smell was not working or their usual fishy stench was missing! It was obviously a touch hot for them (or their morning stroll had worn them out!) but a few were swimming while most were posing nicely for photos! The board identifying them didn't seem to be around so I have no clue who was being so obliging!

As yesterday was so hot we then just wandered around, most animals were hiding and sleeping, especially the big bats, the medium cats and anything with lots of fur!! The biltongs were drapped over branches and fast asleep...or dead!! Only 1 tiger was outside, both Lions were fast asleep, even with the hordes of screaming toddlers!! The Pumas were very well hidden, as were the cheetahs! The moon bears were snoring in their den, one curled up, the Mum flat on her back and totally out for the count!!

It appeared to be a little too warm for the pair of giraffes, they seemed perfectly happy inside, leaving their pet antelope outside sunbathing! Because of the heat we avoided the tropical house, walking into more heat struck me as a daft idea if I'm honest! We wandered past the tapirs who were busy stripping leaves off their lunch - I was disappointed that Nando wasn't doing his fishing trick with his head, but he did show how well endowed male tapirs are; it was honestly trailing on the floor...I am not envious of poor Kathleen....!!

It is sort of a family tradition to feed the carp, so Mikey had 2 lots of food for them as was suitably impressed to see a couple of very large gold coloured fish in there, I fed the ducks on the other side as the geese were not in a swimming mood they missed out!!

After a quick circuit on the go karts while I chatted to a peacock, Mikey was ready to head home and, to be honest, I was fading fast so we headed out through the shop (fastest walk ever through a gift shop!!) and then tried to program the sat nav for home! I think the car was a little warm, it had a slight fit - it refused to accept that Mikey was wearing a seatbelt and a warning light on the dashboard refused to turn off. But once I stopped the engine and restarted it was fine! This was the first long drive it had done, so I'm hoping it was just a minor hiccup and won't happen again! if it does I'll drive straight to Wilmoths and let them look at it...I haven't managed to get it to do it again since!!