Part 1: Overpriced breakfasts and mental lions.
Bristol Zoo Gardens, since my childhood I have longed to visit this historic zoo so it was a great shock to me when the Zoo last year announced it would be closing forever and relocating to the Wild Place project in late 2022. Having long mulled over the idea of going to Bristol I finally bit the bullet in late January whilst skimming through sky scanner as I do regularly. The recent closure of the nocturnal house and the threat of more house closures or animal departures in the coming months combined with A €19.98 return flight from Dublin to Bristol was too big a draw for me to resist (considering it costs me more to return home from uni every weekend!). The date was set; 8th February 2022, my first and more than likely last ever visit to Bristol Zoo.
With my bag packed the night before I woke up at the unmerciful hour of 2:40am having gone to sleep the night previous at 10pm. After saying my goodbyes to my half-asleep girlfriend, I headed out on my first ever solo international zoo trip. Walking down the streets of Cork city at 3 in the morning is an experience to say the least. The roads were busy with taxis whilst the early rising birds sung in the trees illuminated by the streetlamps. Getting further into the city from my uni accommodation I frequented more and more drunk students with pizza boxes in their hands (How I wished I was them at this point!). I was beyond tired at this point and hadn’t been out at this time since before the pandemic with Ireland having only recently opened up the majority of restrictions. Having boarded the bus on the other side of the river Lee I immediately tried to go to sleep something which I found very hard to do on the 3-hour bus journey to Dublin airport, probably a combination of pure excitement and incredible discomfort. 6:30 am couldn’t have come quick enough as I was desperate to get off the bus at this point. After a brief exchange of words with a very rude bus driver having reached our destination, I headed off into Dublin airports terminal one. Ahhh Terminal one, the far superior terminal in Dublin in my eyes even if its age is definitely starting to show. In my eyes a great airport terminal is defined by its availability of good fast food. Terminal two has only a Burger King (of which I am certainly not a fan) whilst terminal one has a McDonald’s the far superior in all fast-food restaurants globally. The Oasis of bands, the Athletic club Bilbao of football teams or the Guinness of alcoholic beverages if you will (definitely no personal biases here). So, it came to much disappointment to me when I went up the escalators in the departures area to discover McDonald’s was not yet open and would not open until 7am, too late for me to want to risk getting caught in queues or the like on the wrong side of security. So, I headed on in through the security gates and off into the duty free and pre-departure restaurants and shops. The appeal of a cooked breakfast drew me into the only restaurant that seemed to be serving any on that floor of the airport. Forgetting about how much of a rip off airport food is, I ordered a ‘Mini breakfast’ so I was then asked what 4(!) items I would like, so a bacon rasher, a sausage, a fried egg and one singular hash brown as well as 2 cold slices of toast were added to my plate. A coffee or tea came included with the breakfast and with my lack of sleep the night before I went for a black coffee. €10.25. For that. In the breakfast place I eat out in frequently in Cork city (Tony’s Bistro, I cannot recommend enough) you would easily get 3 times if not 4 times the food for the same price. Bloody Dublin…Having finished my incredibly overpriced breakfast I went in search of a few snacks for the day to keep my going as I likely would not have time to have lunch. Having picked these up I headed for the departure gate where I sat down and read my book of the moment : “Oasis : Supersonic”. If you like Oasis at all and don’t find the Gallagher brothers unbearable then I’d recommend this book highly. It uses only interviews to tell the story of the rise of the 90s group and is very entertaining in parts. The flight itself was grand, nothing too exciting really and I unfortunately couldn’t really catch a glimpse at the British landscape out the window with it’s awkward positioning and the fact I was sitting in a middle seat. It was a short flight over, only around 40 minutes so I read some more and finished off a podcast I had been listening to.
Having planned buses to and from Bristol airport to Temple Meads and then onwards to the zoo previous to setting off on my trip I had planned to get the 9:50 bus from the airport but in a lucky turn of fate the plane landed early and having jogged lightly through a relatively compact airport I manage to just about make the 9:30 Airport flyer bus service to Temple meads. For the interest of any others who wish to replicate my trip I believe these buses run every 20 minutes or so to and from the airport and the city centre. Whilst the number 8 bus I used to get to the zoo from Temple meads station runs every 10 minutes if I remember correctly. Having gotten an earlier bus meant I could catch an earlier bus to the zoo too so I made up an additional 20 minutes on what was a very tight schedule. I got a good impression of Bristol from the buses. My parents had been previously and said it was lovely and I had heard great things from others about the city too so I was keen to see it for myself. I would love to come back and experience it properly sometime. I arrived at the zoo at 10:36 am nearly 8 hours after I had left my uni accommodation in Cork city. I was relieved that the first leg of my travels were over to say the least. I headed on through the beautiful entrance building and into the zoo where I was met with the colourful flamboyance of Chilean flamingos in their nearby aviary. I took sometime to get my camera out of my bag here and to mull over the map I was given. If I had one criticism of Bristol zoo it would be the map. A black and white A4 piece of paper with hard to distinguish black figures of animals on it. I love zoo maps and always have done but this was definitely one of the poorest I’ve ever received. I know economically it makes sense but I would be willing to pay up to around 3£ if it meant I would receive a quality map in return. Anyway enough ranting..
Having glanced over the animal talk schedule board I noted that there was an Asiatic lion (Panthera leo leo) talk at 11am so I didn’t stray too far from the lions until after this period. For ease of reading and so my walk through makes more sense I will discuss the exhibits I had seen up until the lion talk after I discuss the lions. The lion exhibit was hit and miss for me. I liked the viewing opportunities it gave visitors as well as the planting and opportunities to hide it gave the lions however it is a little on the small side, however that is coming from someone who sees Asiatic lions in a near acre in Fota Wildlife Park nearly every week. The lion talk happened to coincide with feeding of the lions so upon my arrival in the zoo the lions were off show in their house whilst keepers hung up a horse head from a pulley like system in the larger of the two combined exhibits whilst in the other small section the horse head was put up in a tree. The woman that was giving the talk, who was very pleasant and chatty with me several times on my visit, explained that the male and female needed to be fed separately to ensure they both got equal amounts, so the male was fed in the smaller of the pens whilst the female was fed in the other. The male Shahee must be the most impressive and awe-inspiring Lion I’ve ever set eyes on. Whilst the keeper was opening up the sliding door giving him access to the other section of the exhibit and his food Shahee jumped up at the Perspex covering sections of the mesh here and began aggressively banging at it as if he wanted to get at the keeper. Having noticed the open door, he walked on through but keen to scare the absolute crap out of every visitor present he threw himself at the visitor glass before nonchalantly strolling off to retrieve his brunch. This was one of the best lion experiences I’ve ever had along with another I’ll discuss later. It really made me appreciate the size and power these animals have and what damage he would do if the barrier wasn’t there. Moving on from the lion’s exhibit is a nice cliff backed exhibit for Kea (Nestor notabilis). I’ve only seen Kea on a handful of occasions previously, so they were nice to see. A very lively Red panda (Ailurus fulgens) duo took up the other cliff backed exhibits. I must have stayed taking photos of the red pandas for 10 minutes. The most photogenic mammal on earth?
Bristol Zoo Gardens, since my childhood I have longed to visit this historic zoo so it was a great shock to me when the Zoo last year announced it would be closing forever and relocating to the Wild Place project in late 2022. Having long mulled over the idea of going to Bristol I finally bit the bullet in late January whilst skimming through sky scanner as I do regularly. The recent closure of the nocturnal house and the threat of more house closures or animal departures in the coming months combined with A €19.98 return flight from Dublin to Bristol was too big a draw for me to resist (considering it costs me more to return home from uni every weekend!). The date was set; 8th February 2022, my first and more than likely last ever visit to Bristol Zoo.
With my bag packed the night before I woke up at the unmerciful hour of 2:40am having gone to sleep the night previous at 10pm. After saying my goodbyes to my half-asleep girlfriend, I headed out on my first ever solo international zoo trip. Walking down the streets of Cork city at 3 in the morning is an experience to say the least. The roads were busy with taxis whilst the early rising birds sung in the trees illuminated by the streetlamps. Getting further into the city from my uni accommodation I frequented more and more drunk students with pizza boxes in their hands (How I wished I was them at this point!). I was beyond tired at this point and hadn’t been out at this time since before the pandemic with Ireland having only recently opened up the majority of restrictions. Having boarded the bus on the other side of the river Lee I immediately tried to go to sleep something which I found very hard to do on the 3-hour bus journey to Dublin airport, probably a combination of pure excitement and incredible discomfort. 6:30 am couldn’t have come quick enough as I was desperate to get off the bus at this point. After a brief exchange of words with a very rude bus driver having reached our destination, I headed off into Dublin airports terminal one. Ahhh Terminal one, the far superior terminal in Dublin in my eyes even if its age is definitely starting to show. In my eyes a great airport terminal is defined by its availability of good fast food. Terminal two has only a Burger King (of which I am certainly not a fan) whilst terminal one has a McDonald’s the far superior in all fast-food restaurants globally. The Oasis of bands, the Athletic club Bilbao of football teams or the Guinness of alcoholic beverages if you will (definitely no personal biases here). So, it came to much disappointment to me when I went up the escalators in the departures area to discover McDonald’s was not yet open and would not open until 7am, too late for me to want to risk getting caught in queues or the like on the wrong side of security. So, I headed on in through the security gates and off into the duty free and pre-departure restaurants and shops. The appeal of a cooked breakfast drew me into the only restaurant that seemed to be serving any on that floor of the airport. Forgetting about how much of a rip off airport food is, I ordered a ‘Mini breakfast’ so I was then asked what 4(!) items I would like, so a bacon rasher, a sausage, a fried egg and one singular hash brown as well as 2 cold slices of toast were added to my plate. A coffee or tea came included with the breakfast and with my lack of sleep the night before I went for a black coffee. €10.25. For that. In the breakfast place I eat out in frequently in Cork city (Tony’s Bistro, I cannot recommend enough) you would easily get 3 times if not 4 times the food for the same price. Bloody Dublin…Having finished my incredibly overpriced breakfast I went in search of a few snacks for the day to keep my going as I likely would not have time to have lunch. Having picked these up I headed for the departure gate where I sat down and read my book of the moment : “Oasis : Supersonic”. If you like Oasis at all and don’t find the Gallagher brothers unbearable then I’d recommend this book highly. It uses only interviews to tell the story of the rise of the 90s group and is very entertaining in parts. The flight itself was grand, nothing too exciting really and I unfortunately couldn’t really catch a glimpse at the British landscape out the window with it’s awkward positioning and the fact I was sitting in a middle seat. It was a short flight over, only around 40 minutes so I read some more and finished off a podcast I had been listening to.
Having planned buses to and from Bristol airport to Temple Meads and then onwards to the zoo previous to setting off on my trip I had planned to get the 9:50 bus from the airport but in a lucky turn of fate the plane landed early and having jogged lightly through a relatively compact airport I manage to just about make the 9:30 Airport flyer bus service to Temple meads. For the interest of any others who wish to replicate my trip I believe these buses run every 20 minutes or so to and from the airport and the city centre. Whilst the number 8 bus I used to get to the zoo from Temple meads station runs every 10 minutes if I remember correctly. Having gotten an earlier bus meant I could catch an earlier bus to the zoo too so I made up an additional 20 minutes on what was a very tight schedule. I got a good impression of Bristol from the buses. My parents had been previously and said it was lovely and I had heard great things from others about the city too so I was keen to see it for myself. I would love to come back and experience it properly sometime. I arrived at the zoo at 10:36 am nearly 8 hours after I had left my uni accommodation in Cork city. I was relieved that the first leg of my travels were over to say the least. I headed on through the beautiful entrance building and into the zoo where I was met with the colourful flamboyance of Chilean flamingos in their nearby aviary. I took sometime to get my camera out of my bag here and to mull over the map I was given. If I had one criticism of Bristol zoo it would be the map. A black and white A4 piece of paper with hard to distinguish black figures of animals on it. I love zoo maps and always have done but this was definitely one of the poorest I’ve ever received. I know economically it makes sense but I would be willing to pay up to around 3£ if it meant I would receive a quality map in return. Anyway enough ranting..
Having glanced over the animal talk schedule board I noted that there was an Asiatic lion (Panthera leo leo) talk at 11am so I didn’t stray too far from the lions until after this period. For ease of reading and so my walk through makes more sense I will discuss the exhibits I had seen up until the lion talk after I discuss the lions. The lion exhibit was hit and miss for me. I liked the viewing opportunities it gave visitors as well as the planting and opportunities to hide it gave the lions however it is a little on the small side, however that is coming from someone who sees Asiatic lions in a near acre in Fota Wildlife Park nearly every week. The lion talk happened to coincide with feeding of the lions so upon my arrival in the zoo the lions were off show in their house whilst keepers hung up a horse head from a pulley like system in the larger of the two combined exhibits whilst in the other small section the horse head was put up in a tree. The woman that was giving the talk, who was very pleasant and chatty with me several times on my visit, explained that the male and female needed to be fed separately to ensure they both got equal amounts, so the male was fed in the smaller of the pens whilst the female was fed in the other. The male Shahee must be the most impressive and awe-inspiring Lion I’ve ever set eyes on. Whilst the keeper was opening up the sliding door giving him access to the other section of the exhibit and his food Shahee jumped up at the Perspex covering sections of the mesh here and began aggressively banging at it as if he wanted to get at the keeper. Having noticed the open door, he walked on through but keen to scare the absolute crap out of every visitor present he threw himself at the visitor glass before nonchalantly strolling off to retrieve his brunch. This was one of the best lion experiences I’ve ever had along with another I’ll discuss later. It really made me appreciate the size and power these animals have and what damage he would do if the barrier wasn’t there. Moving on from the lion’s exhibit is a nice cliff backed exhibit for Kea (Nestor notabilis). I’ve only seen Kea on a handful of occasions previously, so they were nice to see. A very lively Red panda (Ailurus fulgens) duo took up the other cliff backed exhibits. I must have stayed taking photos of the red pandas for 10 minutes. The most photogenic mammal on earth?
