Another baby giraffe has been born at Marwell Wildlife and I was delighted to see him again this weekend… this time with my camera. He looked so small and cute compared to the others, despite still being around 6 foot tall!
Marwell are running a vote on their website so you can help to name him. The choices are: William, Merlin, Sekani, Kwame or Louis.
More photographs of him can be found on my Flickr website.
After a slightly disappointing weekend weather wise I wanted to make the most of the gorgeous sunny weather on Wednesday. I’ve worked quite a few hours lately and so decided to make the most of my flexible working hours and leave early. I headed over to Finchdean to do Walk 2219 from the Walkingworld website.
It was such a beautiful walk at the current time of year because a lot of the walk took you past fields of wheat which was just turning colour from green to shades of yellow and red. There was quite a breeze in the valley so as you looked down on the fields it alomost looked like waves as the wind caught the wheat.
Some way round the walk you come to open countryside and fields and someone has very kindly carved a bench and footstalls out of a log. I could have sat there enjoying the sunshine and view for hours! It would have made a great spot for a picnic.
The walk is varied, through fields, countryside and woodland with some gorgeous views. I wasn’t lucky enough to spot the wild deer that the walk mentioned, but I saw plenty of butterflies, squirrels and birds. One bird I passed was floating on a cushion of air singing his little heart out.
I of course took my camera with me and have been delighted with the results. The sun coupled with just a few fluffy white clouds, and the colour in the fields has made some lovely pictures. The rest of the photo set can be seen here.
Last Tuesday we went back to Sea World. I won’t write much about the park as I’ve already written about it in my blog previously. From year to year the parks don’t change too much but, as with any park with animals in, you get a different experience every time you go. This year however, sees the opening of the new Manta rollercoaster and at Universal, the new Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket.
Sadly the Universal coaster has had its opening delayed until the summer, but we were extremely lucky to discover that Sea World had decided to do some soft openings before it’s official opening of Manta and so we were one of the first people to try it out.
The first time we joined the queue it got shut again after a few minutes - unfortunately the down side to a soft opening! However, we went back again later. The queue length said 45 minutes, but I really wanted to go on it, and as we’d not had to queue more than about 5 minutes all holiday I felt it was worth the wait.
Once inside the queue area you are kept entertained as the line walks through tunnels of aquariums where you can watch fish and rays. After queueing for only about 10 minutes we discovered we were at the front of the queue – so much for a 45 minute wait time!
In the station you board the rollercoaster much like any other seated rollercoaster, with one exception – there are bars which close over your calves. Then as the coaster is about to leave you are tipped face down to the ground! You set off up the incline, and if like us, you are near the front, you get to dangle head first to the ground whilst the back of the coaster makes it up the slope. From there the coaster rushes you through twists and turns head first and face downwards. There is one part where you hurtle towards the ground head first and then swoop upwards again and the g-force is amazing.
We rode it 3 times and didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes to get on. The back of the coaster is definately more intense, but it was fun at the front hanging head first waiting on the initial incline. The only other thing worth noting is that the lockers outside Manta are 75 cents instead of 50 cents like the rest of the park, so it’s maybe worth putting your bags in one of the lockers by the Kraken or Journey to Atlantis, and doing Manta at the same time.
To summarise and use a proper American phrase – Manta is AWESOME!
I love getting out in the countryside on a sunny day, and today’s walk from Upham had some lovely views. I did Walk 4168 from the Walkingworld website. The walk was just under 5 miles long and took about 1 hour 45 minutes.
The first part of the walk takes you through a large pig farm and there are currently lots of babies! You can see many more are on their way as some of the pigs are clearly pregnant. They had a large area, each with individual houses – it looked like a big pig housing estate!
The walk had some stunning views, but my favourite part of the walk was through some fields just full of dandelions. The fields looked so pretty all yellow, and it felt like the scene out of a movie – you know, one where some young girl is skipping through a field of flowers!
More photographs from the walk in my Flickr set.
There is an advert on tv at the moment for a company who compare the market to get you the best price on insurance. Their advertising campaign currenly features a meerkat, called Aleksandr, who is the founder of the website www.comparethemeerkat.com. I don’t know how popular the real website is, but Aleksandr and friends have taken Britian by storm!
And now for the semi-interesting fact… the meerkats featured on the website actually come from Marwell! So anyone who has visited Marwell may well recognise Aleksandr and friends.
Yesterday evening I went with friends to see Evita at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. It’s a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and follows the story of Eva Perón, an Argentine political leader.
I knew well some of the songs from the musical, but I didn’t really have any preconceptions or idea what the musical would be like. The story is relayed to us through a narrator, Ché, whilst the other characters play out scenes from different parts of Eva’s life, ending where the show also began, at her funeral.
The whole show is sung, unlike some musicals which are a mix of songs and spoken lines. It worked well, and Seamus Cullen, who played Ché, was very good.
Before the theatre we went out for dinner to Tosca’s Italian. They are practically next door to the theatre and are obviously set up to cater for the restaurant trade. Everyone pretty much came and left at exactly the same time! We pre-ordered our food so that we didn’t have to hang around too long, and it fitted in well just before the theatre. The prices were okay, the food reasonable and the staff very friendly.
For starters, Marwell Zoo is now known as Marwell Wildlife. They have just laucnhed a new name, logo and brand. One of the reasons for the change is to raise awareness of the important conservation work that Marwell does worldwide as well as locally in the zoo. More details about the change and reasons behind it can be found on Marwell’s website.
Secondly I was delighted to have been invited to attend the official opening of the new African Valley. The High Commissioner of Kenya, his Excellency Mr. Joseph Muchemi, opened the area and spoke a few words about the importance of the work Marwell was doing both locally and in Kenya. The ceremony was followed by some refreshments in the new Cafe Graze, which overlooks the valley. If the sandwiches cakes are anything to go by the food in the new restaurant will be delicious!
Whilst the new African Valley area was being developed it looked big, but seeing it with some animals in really gave it some scale – particularly as the three species decided to spend the day of the opening tucked away in the three corners away from us! Seeing it again this weekend was lovely though as the animals are clearly beginning to settle in well and the Grevy Zebra were enjoying their new watering hole.
Finally, I was delighted to see two or Marwell’s new arrivals settling into their new home. A couple of Brazilian Tapir have arrived and taken up residence next door to the Pygmy Hippo. The pair seem to be settling in well and I even caught a funny glimpse of one of them trying to climb a fence to investigate a bordering tree! Fingers crossed for some babies.
It’s the final day we have off this week and once again clear sunny skies so we headed down to the New Forest for a walk in the sun. Armed with my camera and the details of Walk 2447 from the Walkingworld website, we headed to the Swan Green Forestry Commission carpark just outside Lyndhurst.
The walk took us through the forest and across heathland, with some nice views before finishing in the pretty village of Emery Down – sadly the pub was closed when we got there!
About half way round the walk you go through the New Forest Reptile Centre where apparently you can see all of Britain’s reptiles in one place. However, they’ve obviously all decided to go off on holiday as the only wild life we saw there were the New Forest ponies and a bird which had managed to get itself stuck in one of the reptile enclosures!
The walk was just over 5 miles long and quite pleasant. I highly recommend wearing boots though as a lot of the paths are very muddy, and even boggy in some places despite us having dry weather recently. I even managed to sink right up above my ankles in one part!
We went with a group of friends to Legoland in Windsor today. When I was much younger I visited the original Legoland in Denmark with my family and I have fond memories of the place – dragging my mum on the runaway train rollercoaster and my brother following me around in the lego cars! I’ve wanted to go and see what the Windsor park is like for a little while now so it was good to have the opportunity to go.
We arrived in the morning and the sun was shining, although it was a little windy. The park only just opened after a break for Winter, and also being a school day it was really quiet which was good as we didn’t have to wait for any of the rides, and in fact on the rollercoasters and water rides they just let us stay on and keep going round!
The park is quite a good size and you can easily spend a day there. Cost of food is expensive though – even at their ‘new lowered price for 2009′ a basic adult meal without drink cost nearly £7! So if you’re on a budget or with a family it might be a better idea to take a picnic with you.
The normal entrance fee for an adult is £36 which is quite steep, but we managed to find tickets for half that price on Lastminute.com. A lot of the park is aimed at a younger generation but there was plenty for big kids to enjoy too – particularly as there was a group of us.
We enjoyed the Viking’s River Splash which was a water ride – it’s worth noting the plastic poncho’s from the machine outside were £2 instead of £3.50 for a slightly better one in the shop. I felt £2 to stand under their family dryer afterwards was a rip off though. The Dragon rollercoaster was fun, but about the only thing going for the Jungle Coaster was the fact the cars are now enclosed so you don’t get wet if it starts to rain!
Near the entrance in the Lego Creation center you can build your own lego racecar and then compete in a race against your friends. It was a good laugh – although I struggle to understand how I managed to come 7th when there were only 6 of us on it!
Overall, I enjoyed the day. I’d recommend going with a group like we did (it is more fun) and certainly look around before buying full price tickets! I do hope Legoland spend some money updating the lego too as some had got quite sunbleached and if they let it go the park will begin to look tatty.
More photographs can be found on my Flickr set.
We are having a gorgeous couple of weeks weather wise and so I set out for a long country walk. As usual, I easily found a nice sounding walk on the Walkingworld website – Walk 1879 – which was a circular walk and goes through the villages of Michelmersh and Braishfield.
The walk was just under 8 miles long and took me around 3 hours to complete. There were a number of pubs on route, including the Bear and Ragged Staff at the start (or end) and the Newport Inn about half way round, so you could easily have made a day of it! The walk also shares a small part of the route with Walk 1839 around Mottisfont and Kimbridge (see previous blog entry here) and so someone wanting a longer walk could probably combine the two.
It was a really lovely walk, mostly through farmland, with some stunning views of the countryside. It had its share of hills but nothing too strenuous. I met a lot of farmyard animals on the walk including some cute baby cows!
More photographs from the walk can be found on Flickr.
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