Earlier this week I was invited to my bookish friend Jane art Witches Brew Books to her birthday party. I stayed for a few days and on the Monday we went to Colchester Zoo which is located in Colchester in Essex.
You can follow at Witches Brewbooks on her blog here or her Instagram account here.
We arrived at the zoo at 12 o clock and my main memory of the zoo is how huge it is as we spent a good 5 hours walking around to see all the animals and some of the enclosures really are massive, including the African savannah which is huge and contained Elephants, Zebras, Giraffes, Rhinos and Ostriches.
The zoo is broadly divided into biogeographical zones however with tropical Asian and Neotropical areas, as well as a underwater tunnel to see sea lions in a large water tank called Playa Patagonia. There are plenty of amazing animals to see and with the enclosures being quite large there is a good chance of catching some good photos of the animals. I had almost 200 photos on my phone once I got back to my hotel and these are just 12 of my favourites.
There are also plenty of things around the park to keep little ones entertained which I noticed. There is a Safari play area where they can run wild and there are also opportunities to feed the animals at certain times of the day – for example my photos of the giraffes were taking from a viewing platform above them as they were bought inside to be fed. Then there is also the Madagascar Road Train which is a safari style train which has a narrated commentary as you go round the enclosures. We didn’t go on these on the day but they will surely make it memorable.
As I was with my friend and another person in a wheelchair I also noticed accessibility around most of the zoo is pretty good, though there is the occasional steep slope and ramp for those in wheelchairs to get up and down but there is a very good chance of them seeing most of the animals.
The entry price is £26.99 for adults on the day, £20.50 for children aged 3-15 and £26.50 for seniors over 60+ (at the time of writing). Under 3 and carers get in free. However I would say the day out overall is very good value for money.
Outtakes / Funnies
During my time at the zoo we had a few funny moments which I thought I would write down here, both because they made me laugh and would be nice to look back on.
The first two photos above are of the Komodo Dragon enclosure. My friend Jane’s partner is that the Dragon was next to the log and looked a bit like a log. However me and my friend both looked at the actual log and I even took a picture of it 😂.
Next is the slightly rude name of Kirk’s Dik-Dik’s which are small antelope’s native to Eastern Africa and not anything else (Get your head out of the gutter).
I also showcased my David Attenborough skills by taking a photo of a statue of a Zebra instead of a real Zebra.
I also was walking and talking to my friend not seeing where I was going and walked into a children’s sand pit and nearly yelled out loud. Considering I had only met my friend in real life the day before it was definitely an embarrassing moment 😂.
About Colchester Zoo
Colchester Zoo first opened its doors in 1963 when it was called Stanway Hall Zoo Park and was opened by zoologists Frank and Helena Farrar. The zoo at the time was only 10 hectares and had a very small collection of animals. Today, the site is home to over 160 species and i set in 60 acres of parkland and lakes.
The zoo plays host to animals from around the world, from the humid home of Komodo Dragons to their very own Africa plain, Kingdom of the Wild.
The zoo works hard to promote environmental and animal conservation both in the UK and abroad. They strive to be more sustainable and to reduce their environmental impact. Colchester Zoo also created its charity Action For The Wild to assist conservation projects worldwide and has donated over £1.2 million towards their efforts.