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It was pretty cold and miserable today, but we took a risk and went on a family trip to Whipsnade Zoo. As usual slightly torn between giving the kids an understanding and love of animals and worrying about whether zoos are cruel. Whipsnade seems to have a lot of space for the animals and apart from a zebra standing staring at a wall one inch from its face in its stall (it might have been doing a black and white tribute to the Blair Witch Project) all the creatures seemed pretty happy. Well the ones we could see. A lot of them were hiding away from the bitter cold.
But family trips have to come with a bit of misery or what would be the point and even though I’d made the mistake of coming out in a coat and a t shirt with no jumper and also forgotten the baby sling when I got distracted by having to clear up some dog shit (this is all part of the rich tapestry of family outings) and even though the map (or at least my reading of it) suggested we turn left out of the ticket hall to see the tigers, we actually ended up at the opposite side of the zoo. The bears were nowhere to be seen, the chimps were huddled in the corner, but the penguins came good, zooming around in their blue water to the delight of both kids. And there was an amazing panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.
Then we crossed the plains, to another empty shed that was meant to have white rhinos in it and the wind was whipping through us, but luckily we were then into the main part of the zoo and we saw rhinos (in the distance) and then giraffes very close up (as it was feeding time). I told my daughter that one of the first times I’d been to a zoo I’d seen a giraffe doing a wee, though I am not sure I really remember it as such, as there was a photo of the incident in the family album. But then again if I’d seen a giraffe do a wee when I was 2 or 3 that would definitely have made an impact.
The zebras, apart from the depressed one, were another close up delight. I liked the way their manes matched their stripes and then we found our way finally to the tigers and saw three of the stripy fuckers.
There’s a cool playground there too and a train (though that was not running today) and I had a weird cup of soup that managed somehow to be warm at the top, then have a cold bit, then a warm bit, then a cold bit and so on until it got quite hot at the bottom.
The kids had fun though, I think and we are weighing up whether we would come here enough in a year to justify the £250 it would cost to be members (you also get London Zoo entry for that)… If we had 5 kids it would cost the same (and Ernie is still free for now) so, not for the first time in my life, I regret not having more sex.
We didn’t see a giraffe pee, but we did almost certainly smell some tiger poo and I think we’ll return when the weather is a bit nicer. It’s only 30 minutes away. If you think it’s OK to keep animals in zoos then
why not go and have a look at the mainly happy animals - if you don’t, probably don’t go. If you do go, maybe wait til it's sunny though. It's mainly outside.
