Along with my daughter, niece and their four children, we spent a lovely day at Broxbourne’s Paradise Wildlife Park, arriving soon after it opening and leaving as they were warning people that the car park would be closing in a few moments’ time. It was a mainly dry day which we were glad about.
We were given a map of the site which gave times of the various shows and the talks and feeds, several of which we went along to. We used Tesco clubcard vouchers to get in and bought bags of animal food for £1 each; then had to stop the children eating the contents of the packs as they were mostly salad! There were clear signs on the cages saying which animals you were allowed to feed. The emu was a big hit as he kept reaching over its fence to try to grab the food.
All the animals looked really well cared for and every member of staff we came across was friendly and helpful. It was great having walkways up high so we could look over at the tigers and lions and cheetah. The snow leopards in their glass-fronted enclosure were fantastic and we viewed them from a covered walkway. As always I loved watching the monkeys swinging around on branches and ropes, especially the one with its baby attached to its front..There were excellent playgrounds for children, both youngsters and older ones and a nice woodland walk
Penguins, otters, giraffes – one with a youngster – we enjoyed watching them all, though my grandson was keener than I on all the snakes and lizards in the reptile house. After our picnic we went into the Bird Show Arena where we sat and listened while a very knowledgeable young man brought out about owls, rats, ferrets and parrots and told us about their histories.
All in all it was a very interesting and enjoyable day.
