Colchester Zoo

So today we took Alex and 2 of her friends to Colchester zoo for a late birthday treat. Just as we arrived at the zoo it started raining!! Fortunately it only rained in short bursts throughout the day - could have been worse. Colchester Zoo was a very popular haunting ground for us when the kids were younger but we have not been for about 4 years, even so I was still amazed at the changes for the better they had made. A new sealion enclosure and a wakthrough underwater tunnel, new orangutang enclosure, changes to the "familiar friends" area to name but a few.
Having already established the favourites to visit - meerkats for me and Alex, penguins for Stuart and big cats for Georgia and Leah we started out.
The first place we came to was a touchy feely centre - bleuugghh pictures below of the cockroach and alex holding it - made me shiver just thinking about it!

We soon found the meerkats much to everyones delight, who can fail to be charmed by these cute animals!

Stuart and i decided we were a bit cold and a coffee was in order so we dispatched the kids off for half an hour (mobile phones are wonderful things) and sat in the warm having a coffee!

Monkeys were a big favourite with the girls particularly these little squirrel monkeys, even more exciting because there was a baby to see. Pictures are a bit naff as it was hrough glass and most of them were indoors but never mind!

Of course we had to go see the big cats, I am rather proud of these photos considering they were through glass and at max zoom.

More pictures to follow!