Howletts Wild Animal Park

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I love a good zoo trip.

And so do the twins. They love animals and get so excited when they see them.

We found ourselves at a bit of a loose end last Tuesday, so my mum and I decided to take the twins to Howletts Wild Animal Park in Bekesbourne, Kent. We’re lucky enough to live about an hour or so away from several zoos, but this is probably the closest big one.

We’ve never been to Howletts Wild Animal Park at this time of year before.

We usually save zoo trips for the summer. I’ve never been a big fan of spending all day walking around in the cold. But it was a nice day – a bit chilly, but bright – so we decided to go.

We weren’t sure what to expect, really. One of the problems we’ve had before with Howletts is that we usually manage to miss most of the animals. As I said before, we usually go in the Summer and, when it’s so hot, the animals (understandably) hide away in the shade, which is what I always end up wishing I was doing!

I was pleasantly surprised.

In fact, it was the best trip to Howletts we’ve ever had. It was the twins’ first trip, because we usually take them to Wingham Wildlife Park instead – simply because it’s smaller, so easier for their little legs. We’d already been there recently, so we fancied something different and I’m really glad we did.

The fact that the school holidays are over and the weather is little colder meant that there were far fewer people there than we’re used to seeing in the summer. This was both good and bad. Good, because it meant no queues and a clear view of all the enclosures, without having to wait for someone else to move out of the way. Bad, because it meant that lots of the little snack shops were closed and we had to dodge staff cutting grass and clearing leaves. Although, really, given that I’m on a diet, that wasn’t really a bad thing and we didn’t miss them, because we took our own snacks. As for the leaf blowers, the twins thought the noise was great.

The best thing was that it was obviously perfect weather for the animals, because they were all outside and very interested in the weird humans that came to visit them. We saw more animals on this trip than we ever have before.

The twins were so excited!

We saw the baby elephant and the baby gorilla they’ve got there, which were just adorable. We spent ages watching the gorillas because they were being so playful and the twins didn’t want to leave.

Jack’s favourite animals were the rhinos, which he declared were “silly and muddy”. Alice preferred the gorillas, until one of them got a bit noisy and she decided she was “finished” and ready to leave. Both loved the elephants and thought the Animals of the Ice Age exhibition was “amazing”. They still keep talking about how much fun they had and it’s been almost a week!

It was such a lovely family day.

Mr Becca was disappointed that he had to work and missed all the fun. Another downside to going midweek, unfortunately.

We decided to take the buggy, because it’s quite a long walk with lots of hills. Considering how tired I was after climbing all those hills, I’m glad we did, because I think Alice might have struggled. Jack never runs out of energy, but I definitely would have, if I’d had to chase him up those hills! Although, pushing the double buggy wasn’t much easier and there were a few paths where the trees and grass were quite overgrown,  which made getting through with the double buggy a bit tricky. Not impossible, though!

It really was a great day and I would recommend Howletts Wild Animal Park to anyone looking for an Autumn family day out!

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