Visiting London Zoo

On Thursday 27th October 2016, my son, I, my mum, sister-in-law and nieces took a trip up London, to visit London Zoo. 

The last time I did this was over twenty or so years ago. You can probably work out how old I am roughly by this. 
I think the last time I went to London Zoo was with my Primary school. I don't ever remember going there when I was in my Secondary school. 

I had no idea where it was, and what a trek it would be to get there. A piece of advise don't go via the Circle Line or District Line to Edgware Road. There are no lifts. From getting the train to Edgware road, we then had to get the train to Baker Street, to then catch another train to Regents Park. There was no lifts there too. Not so easy when you have children in pushchairs. It was a bit of a mission. 

Good thing we went as a group and thank you to my sister-in-law, my nieces and my mum for their help on the day. As there is no way I would have done that on my own. 

I would definitely say go via Waterloo, if you can. You can go via the overground to Waterloo, if travelling from the South West and then the jubilee line to Baker Street. You can catch a bus from there, Baker Street, to Regents Park, and it is just a walk through to the Zoo. 

I have put a map below so you can see where it is, with a bit more detail. 

Once we got to Regents Park, we then tried to work out where we needed to go next. My mum went to ask someone who was working on the buses, who said to follow some people, however we were not sure if they were actually going near the Zoo. 
So my mum sees a cab, a 6 seat cab, and we all jumped in to then go to, London Zoo. 

Thank you to the guy who I asked for directions, as he wasn't from London, but he was more helpful than the guy that worked on the buses, whom we had initially asked for directions. So we all jump in a cab who always knows where he is going, especially a London Taxi driver and within say 5 minutes we were there. 

It wasn't that far at all. Thank you cab driver. 

It didn't take us long to queue. My mum had pre-booked the tickets and was on an e-ticket, for each of us. So it was just the case of scan and then straight in. 

The first place we went was the Aquarium, first opened in 1853. London Zoo was the first to have a public Aquarium and there are some enormous fish in there, and some I have never seen before. Here is a link which tells you a bit of the history behind their Aquarium at London Zoo: ​https://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/exhibits/the-history-of-the-aquarium

Image I took, of the Gorilla's, who at first we didn't think would make an appearance but they did.

I did try to take some photos but I forgot to take my camera in the Aquarium and my phone had run out of battery as I was about to take a photo.

However I did manage to take some photos of our day on my camera and film too. I think I did save the best photos for the rest of our visit. 

We had a surprising appearance from the Gorillas as we went to the Gorilla Kingdom. At first there was no site of them at all. 
However all of a sudden one appeared along with the another, who was holding a baby Gorilla, who you can see in my photo I took above.

You have the Male Silverback Kumbuka. He parented his first offspring in 2014 with Mjukuu. They had a baby girl named Alika, which means "Most Beautiful". In 2015 they had another offspring a male called Gernot. Then they had two more babies called Effie and Zaire, both girls. You can read more about these amazing spectacular animals, in the link below:
https://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/exhibits/gorilla-kingdom

They were so impressive and I do find it sad that these animals have had bad press when really, we are visiting them in their home and so we should be respectful of that. We wouldn't like it if someone was taking photos and screaming at us in our homes.

Then you had some other animals which I had never seen before. In the picture below are some animals which looked like MeerKats but I don't think they were. I remember they had a different name, but very similar to the Meerkats. 

Image of some of these little Animals, not sure what they were called, they were like Meerkats, but orange coloured.

onWe walked through a place where they had different species of birds, called the Blackburn Pavilion. It had a small type of desert/tropical feel to it. With many different plants and flowers. The birds were flying around, walking through or resting.

​There were so many different types of birds.They weren't kept in, but let free to do enjoy their surroundings.

We went to the Tiger Territory but I didn't see any Tigers on that day. I could hear a guy talking about them on a microphone, but there was so many people trying to look, that there was no way unless I was 7ft 10 that I would have been able to see. 

However we did see the Lions. They look chilled and happy. They have a massive area to walk around and you are kept clear all the time. It is just amazing to see these animals whom you would usually only see in pictures or on the TV, in front of you. 

The image I took of the Lions at the London Zoo. So chilled and enjoying the good weather.

It was such a nice day. Very lucky with the weather and my nieces did a free pumpkin challenge and bought their pumpkins they crafted home with them. I went into one of the gift shops and found a really good story book, I will do another blog about this soon and it wasn't that overly priced. They were doing 3 for 2 on selected items. I bought some little gifts for my nieces and for my son too. 

We also visited the Penguins. Such lovely creatures, and they were not shy at all. There is something so unique and sweet about these, that I always have to see penguins if they have them at a zoo. A wonderful site.

It was a brilliant day and we did have something to eat there. I hadn't realised there was a big massive restaurant there as you go round nearer to the entrance. We had something to eat in like a little cafe, where I also found the gift shop, and we all had a hotdog and a drink. 

It is a truly a great place to go, it costs for a ticket Adults: £20.45 Child: £16.40 Senior: £18.40 Student: £18.40
Under 3's: Free Disabled Adult: £18.40 and Disabled Child: £16.40.

They do also have an Online Gift shop too, if you don't manage to buy anything on site. 

https://shop.zsl.org/

So I would go back there, and would definitely do that again, but would love to take my husband and son next time too. 
​
Many thanks for reading, 


​Carrie X