Flamingo Land
- Ali
- Oct 23, 2017
- 4 min read
So I had to start my first blog with the zoo that got me obsessed with zoos. I must have visited here about 100 times and I have seen it change over the years. When I first used to go my memory is slightly blurry of it but I will share with what I remember.
I used to get so excited every weekend when my folks said we were going to Flamingo Land and they filled the blue cooler box with our packed lunch for the day ahead. Once we got there I remember flashing our passes and jumping the queue, I was too little to go on the big rides by then and could only really go on this caterpillar ride and the wagon wheel. So instead we spent the majority of the day with the animals.
The first animal on my list was always the polar bears and brown bear, looking back now their enclosure was so small and it would break my heart to see them in that much of a small space although they did have a pool there wasn’t much else for them to do but this was the 80s so zoos weren’t as good as they are now for the enclosures for their animals, I would spend ages watching them but I would only ever stand at one side as the opposite enclosure was the camels and even as a kid I was kind of scared of them as I knew they spat at people. In that area there was also the baboons which were so funny to watch. Along from the baboons was an echidna I used to love looking at that as my surname was Kidner and when you are a kid it’s always fun having an animal with your name in it, even if it is spelt different but sounds the same. Most of the time it was asleep as it’s a nocturnal animal, so never really spent long with it. The next enclosure was the elephants, what a smell you got when you got up to them, every time I’m at a zoo near elephants it always takes me back to my childhood memories of them from here.
From here we would head towards the dolphin show, I used to get so excited about seeing this especially as they always picked a kid out of the crowd to go in the boat that the dolphins pulled, I was lucky once to have the pleasure to be chosen, it was so exciting to walk up to the stage and get in that boat and go on a little tour of their pool, they pulled that boat so fast it was amazing. I talked about that moment for weeks back at school. After the show you could go downstairs and see them through theses windows and watch them swim by and they often were just at the windows looking at you.
Once we came out of their we headed for the lions and tigers, my heart would always beat so fast at the point, I always thought that they would get out and eat me, I used to be so scared of them, how times have changed I am big cat obsessed, I am even watching a program on Nat geo wild about lions while I am typing this memory. We used to walk up this ramp and you used to look down into their enclosure on one side was the tigers and the other was the lions, I don’t really remember much about what they were like back then think the fear of them made me forget about them.
After you had came back down the ramp there was loads of cages with different monkeys in, I never really spent long round them and headed towards the bird of prey/ parrot walk, which finished at the sea lion show, but first you had to walk past the wolves, again another animal that used to be so scary, it was set in this woodland scene where there wasn’t much light but one side was an enclosure with wolves in, and 9 times out of 10 you would hear them howl as you were walking past them. After walking through the birds and the parrots would always say hello to you we ended up at the sea lions, I always used to remember this big male sea lion that was always a huge part of their show he was called Benson, sadly over the years Benson passed away and they had a statue of him.
Fast forward to 2015, the zoo has changed loads and I will revisit and do a current blog about the place, but the polar bears and brown bears, elephants and dolphins are no longer there the sea lions are in the old dolphin enclosure with penguins in the old sea lion pool, the tigers are still up the ramp but have a really good enclosure now, and the lions have moved to a fantastic enclosure as you walk through the Africa plains, and have a huge viewing window where you can see them clearly, which the photo with this blog shows, they now have hippos and the enclosures have improved dramatically. If you are like me and can’t do the theme park or don’t like the rides I highly recommend visiting this place during the winter months when the theme park is closed and is a much cheaper price.
Hope you enjoyed my first blog and will look forward to reading about every other zoo in the UK.
Much love
Ali
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