Birthday treats

Hello! This is a bumper post of our trip to Essex. We had a terrific time.

Birthday presents and enjoying the beautiful North Essex countryside

Oh and LOTS of delicious birthday food!

Colchester Zoo

We had an amazing time at Colchester Zoo!  The chimps and orang-utans were fascinating to look at, and it was great to see ostriches, white rhino, zebra and kudu all together in a massive enclosure. Just like being on safari. Andrew made friends with a Francois Langur who kept coming over and whacking the glass whenever Andrew went near to it. We took a 'Choo Choo Train' to Madagascar and walked through very close to ring-tailed lemurs. They jumped across the enclosure between us, brushing Andrew and Isla with their tails on a couple of occasions! Isla loved the train, so we ended up going on it twice. 

The highlight for us all was hand-feeding giraffes and elephants. The giraffes were very gentle, even when Isla was teasing them and not handing over her leaves - Andrew got a lick from a giraffe on his hand when it was trying to get hold of Isla's leaves. The elephant was also very gentle and sucked the pieces of cabbage and carrot from our hands with his trunk. We all got snotty hands! 

Andrew's friend Francois

On the 'choo choo train'

The ring-tailed lemurs having a nap on our first visit to Madagascar

Doing a quick check-up

Breakfast with 'Raa Raa' and fun at the playing fields