Days Out With Bella: We're Going to the Zoo!
This was a very fun trip and the 2nd part of Bella’s 2nd birthday treat. 2 of her godmothers (also my 2 best friends) accompanied us for this exciting day out. I believed this to be a fitting present for Isabella-Grace as she is fascinated by animals. She is always trying to play with our 2 cats Bailey and Princess Coco, but I believe that they see her as a mini giant and run every time they see or hear her coming, bless her! The farm was the other option, but I thought at least with the zoo there is more of a variety than the farm. I will take her to the farm one day, so that she can see Peppa Pig! I joke, but seeing the pigs in real life will make her very happy.
It was an extremely hot day and we arrived at the park very hot and hungry. We opted to take an Uber as we could not be asked with commuting on public transport that day, what with the heat, the tiny windows, the constant stopping and the lack of space that we experience with public transport. The Uber got us there quickly and that was a big relief! We decided that we would go and eat first, my 2 best friends opted for two tower burgers, I decided on a vegetable pasta for Bella and fish and chips for myself. I would not say it was the greatest I ever had, but it was edible. Bella was not very keen on her pasta, but she enjoyed her grapes, sultanas and raisins along with her water.
After eating came all the fun, we were all ready to go and visit the many different animals at the zoo. We started off with the penguins as they were the closest to the restaurant where we ate our lunch.
Bella enjoyed looking at the penguins and I think she was fascinated by the view of the clear blue water.
I was trying to show Bella how penguins walk and she found this so funny. Below my other bestfriend Vanessa (@vidxchange.live) was taken by the penguin as you can see!
One of the penguins actually came relatively close to us, which was pretty cool too! Bella pointed at it and laughed as it put on a little show for all to see. It was quite a poser!
As we walked to see the lions we saw some interesting birds, I believe the ones below are called pelicans, but I am not completely sure (please comment below if you know!). I was a little bit scared because their fence was quite low, so I kept my distance, naturally!
Then we stumbled across the beautiful flamingos! Their beautiful pink feathers were so attractive to see.
If you look closely you can see one of the flamingos lifting up their wings to display an array of beautiful colours.
This bird was walking around on it's own, but it kindly stopped for a picture! The next stop for us was the lions.
When we went to see the lions, we were slightly disappointed as they were asleep. However, this was understandable because of the heat. As we continued a sign actually said that lions spent most of the day sleeping, so perhaps the heat was not solely to blame in this case.
We did manage to get some images of them though and one even has one of its eyes open! Bella was not able to see them either because they were so far away.
(Up close picture of the lion credit goes to @effesdlightfulcakes)
The lion transport box was placed near the lion’s den for all to see how the lions get transported to and from the zoo. It was quite big in order to give the lions enough space to manoeuvre whilst in transit.
We stopped for a quick selfie (or two) before going to see the Macaw family.
The bearded pigs were my least favourite, but it was all for Bella, so we went to see them too.
Bella enjoyed seeing the bearded pigs, although she kept referring to them as “cow, mooooo moooo!” I cannot say that I really blame her because the pigs were not your typical pink pigs, they were black and extremely hairy.
The tigers were the same as the lions because they were also sleeping, but we had a much clearer view of them as they relaxed in the shade. The glass was there of course, so we were secure. It was just amazing to be so close to them and to get to see what they really look like up close.
(Tiger picture credit goes to @effesdlightfulcakes)
After seeing the tigers we went to see the donkeys and the llamas. The donkey below was busy eating, so it paid us no mind.
The llamas were huddled together under the shade.
We went up a steep slope to visit some other animals. Here we found many different animals kept in their own habitat.
The meerkat was so cute! It was very busy and did not keep still, but I tried to get a few good shots of it before it disappeared.
The yellow mongoose was also very busy like the meerkat. They were both running along the branches and jumping off, it was really funny to see.
The lemur was the cutest little thing EVER! We spent an awful lot of time just observing what it was doing because it was so cute.
The gorillas were absolutely hilarious! They sat chilling underneath a tree eating grass/leaves it was really funny how they just did not care who was watching them or that people found them fascinating. It was quite cute, how they were just in their own little world minding their own business. We really enjoyed spending time watching them the gorillas.
The smaller monkeys were VERY mischievous! They appeared to be having a slight altercation and then one of them pushed the other and gosh, one thing led to another! It turned into a big fight, I was so scared because it was very worrying to watch. My best friend Madonna brought it to my attention that one of them was injured, this saddened me, but I felt better knowing that the zoo assistants were on the case and were going in to potentially help the injured animal. One of the monkeys was protecting her baby as the others were fighting, I liked that she had a "do not come next to my baby" expression on and I'm sure she meant it. You never mess with a mama or her baby!
We visited the aquarium and I am so glad that we did. The amount of diverse fishes and sealife we stumbled across was incredible. They were all so beautiful and very unique with their bold, striking colours. It was really quiet and cool in here and we appreciated the shade from the heat outside.
The turtle was actually snacking on some broccoli before came to see it, I suppose the turtle needs it's 5 a day too!
The giraffes were very fascinating and very beautiful. They walked around with such grace and I managed to get some amazing pictures of them. We were a bit disappointed as there was no ramp to climb up to go on the balcony where we would have been able to have a much better view of them, I was not going to leave Bella’s pushchair downstairs either, so we decided to make do with the shots that we took on the ground. We thought of taking it in turns, but we later decided not to, I guess laziness got the better of us when we looked at the amount of steps we would have to walk up.
The zebras were next to the giraffes, so after seeing them we decided to take our leave. On the way out we saw some owls by the exit.
All in all, Bella had an amazing day. She enjoyed her ice lolly despite throwing it away after becoming alarmed when another child started screaming hysterically, but at least she enjoyed it whilst it lasted. She fell asleep after we left the zoo and once we were outside, I remembered that we did not get to visit the shop. We were surprised that we had forgotten as we wanted to go to the zoo because we had mentioned it several times that day. It had been a long day and we were all very tired at this point.
I would recommend visiting the London Zoo with your children. There is so much to see here and it is great especially if your children are slightly older because they can learn about different animals as they go along. There is even an adventure park for children to explore and play in, we did not get to go here because we arrived later than anticipated, but there is always next time!
Have you ever been to London Zoo? If you have, what were your favourite animals?
With Love,
Roxanne-Sasha x
