Moorhunhe
Well-Known Member
We were on holiday in Kent for a week from September 19th.
Long before we went I opened up the area of where we would be staying and typed in "zoo" and "wildlife" on google, to see if there was anything nearby.
I ended up finding 5 that were very closeby or max. an hours drive.
We hadn't really planned on going to Howletts or Port Lympne, so those 2 we really just decided in the morning to go.
A few weeks before we left, we also had booked the Red Panda experience at Wingham, as I adore these animals, and it's my birthday in 2 weeks now, so it was an early birthday present
First one we went to was Hemsley.
Very nice place (allthough the potholes during the drive on to the property were a lot less nice
), very nice enclosures.
I love anything fluffy and any cats, and with not having seen an Ocelot before, it was a great place to strart off the week.
Unfortunately due to my boyfriends bad memory, he got a phonecall from Wingham while only at the park for about 20 minutes asking us if we still wanted to do the Red Panda experience
(voice mail actually, as he didn't pick up on time)
From day 1 he told me it was Thursday (and I asked him later on a couple of times and he kept saying Thursday), and "today" was Wednesday.
Completely upset he calls them back, but they were amazing and said if we could make it for 1.30 we could still do it.
So we had to cut our losses at Hemsley, and left for Wingham (about an hours drive).
Very unprepared, as I didn't bring my normal lens to Hemsley, so we only had 2 bridge camera's to take pictures during the experience, which resulted into sometimes missing a moment, but my boyfriend still managed to get some great shots!
We arrived at Wingham around noon, and went looking for the enclosure straight away, so we knew where to go.
As mentioned, I love cats, and this was an amazing place to see quite a few!
I hadn't seen a Puma in years, so this was a very nice sight, to see 2 of them.
We stayed near the Red Panda enclosure, and their male Kai, was out and about the entire time, so was a bit scared he might not be when it would be time, but at 1.30 both came down from their tree spots and were very present for the full 30 minutes!
It was definately an amazing experience to have done!
Turns out, we had seen Kai as a 5-6 month old cub in Blackpool zoo back in December, so that was really fun to hear that we saw him again at Wingham.
The only animal we didn't get to see was their black panther, he was sleeping inside. We saw his head pop up once in a while though, hehe.
We stayed until closing time, which was 5.30pm.
As we are leaving the Arctic Wolves started howling for quite some time, but when I managed to get my camera out again to film it, they stopped
.
The next day we decided to go to Howletts (22/09).
It was nice and sunny, so why not?
We managed to get a free ticket using our Tesco clubcard points too.
Since we only decided in the morning what to do, we didn't get there until about 12.
Somewhere I saw online, it was open until 5pm, and about 5 hours is usually the time we spent at a new place.
We live in the Midlands, and impossible to do a daytrip, but if we would be from the area, we would definately visit Howletts a lot more often.
It was a really nice place, more like walking in a forest.
I really wanted to spot the Crowned Lemur, but when we passed the Lemure walkthrough, it wasn't open yet, and we didn't manage to go back in the end.
I had also never seen a Dhole, or even heard about them.
We only just managed to see everything and left around 5pm, only then to find out it was open until 6pm
On the 24th we went to Fenn Bell, which was only a 10 minute ride from where we were staying.
Such a great little place.
Another animal to check of, a Raccoon Dog, had never seen one before.
Yes, Wingham has them, but we only saw his behind from where he was sleeping.
We didn't see them on our morning visit though.
We stayed for about 2 hours, and then went back to Hemsley! Due to having our first visit cut short, my boyfriend really wanted to go back there, to get the full experience.
The Ocelot was showing off for a very long time, I could just stand there forever!
We had a great chat with one of the keepers when it was time for the Maned Wolves talk, he was very knowledgeable about so many things.
We got talking to another couple there, who suggested the Port Lympne Safari, but we said we're on a motorbike, so that's really a no-no, hehe.
After we were done in Hemsley, we went back to Fenn Bell, and all the animals had just been fed.
We spent about another 1,5 hours there and it took about that long for the Raccoon Dogs to finally show themselves, I kept walking back and forth to the enclosure hoping to spot them.
On the morning of the 25th, our last day or the holiday (the next day we'd drive back home), we were trying to decide what to do.
Boyfriend suggested Blue Water shopping center, but it's just another mall really, and if the weather wasn't great it would have been a nice option.
But it was nice and sunny, and he decided to have a look at Port Lympne.
Turns out you don't drive through the safari bit yourself, but a keeper with a massive truck.
So that changed everything.
I brought my 2 camera's, both 2 batteries each, and I had 3 flat ones, lol.
So both my DSLR batteries I quickly put on charge, for about 30 minutes each, and to my surprise, I took about 900 pictures with only 1 battery.
So we arrived quite "late" (around 1pm), as it was about an hour drive, and by the time we had decided to go, but since it was open until 6.30pm we should be fine.
Normally, we would prefer to go as early as possible, but what can you do ... lol.
This was quite the experience.
It looks so nice and lovely. And the view you get when in certain places, stunning!
Quite a few animals were a no-show, understandable, bit still a bit gutted.
I'd seen a Fossa before when visiting America, but it was curled up sleeping, so was hoping to get a better look this time.
We didn't spot the Red Panda's, Malayan Tapir, Rusty Spotted Cat, Coati, Pallas Cat (though, seen all of them elsewhere, just nice to see them in different places, hehe).
There was a baby Javan Gibbon, maybe 3 weeks old? (I'm not good with animal age estimates, but definately very young, as no hear yet on legs either).
The bear cub was super cute, and fully trashing his house! He was having his paw underneath the wooden boards trying to knock them out, haha!
We also didn't see the Margay, and I had never seen one before, but after coming back home, my boyfriend read it had passed away somewhere around that date, so that may have been why.
Both Lynxes were such posers, so cute! And the Fishing Cat was just being fed some fishies, and the keeper noticed we were standing at the glass, so she threw some in front of it, so we could have a good look.
Be very warned about Port Lympne, if you're having trouble walking.
They told us at the entrance there's a hilly bit in the end, but wauw, I was exhausted when we made it back up, could not take another step. Luckily our timeslot for the safari was straight after we made it up, so I could sit for about an hour.
Some Giraffes making it quite difficult, as they didn't want to get of the road, lol.
And when we got to the Przewalski Horses, the guide had already said "horse" maybe 5 times, yet someone behind us kept saying "oh look it's a donkey!!" Ugh ........
We also saw a baby Capybara, omg, how cute?? The guide said it was about 2 weeks old.
This was such a nice place, I really wouldn't mind visiting again sometime, but then obviously from the moment it would open.
And if we would have, after a nice sit down, I could have definately go around for a second time.
We had about an hour left after the safari, and boyfriend kind of wanted to go around again, and he's quite the walker, so maybe he could have done that in an hour, not sure, but I was beat, and we just hung around with the Lions and Tigers near the entrance.
Sadly, the gift shop had already closed by then too.
Does anyone know if Port Lympne has a guide book like Howletts has one?
All in all, it was a great week, lots of walking, loads of animals (and we did go and visit some towns too
).
And with travelling back on Monday, work Tuesday-Thursday, I can now enjoy myself going through about 5.000 pictures.
Long before we went I opened up the area of where we would be staying and typed in "zoo" and "wildlife" on google, to see if there was anything nearby.
I ended up finding 5 that were very closeby or max. an hours drive.
We hadn't really planned on going to Howletts or Port Lympne, so those 2 we really just decided in the morning to go.
A few weeks before we left, we also had booked the Red Panda experience at Wingham, as I adore these animals, and it's my birthday in 2 weeks now, so it was an early birthday present
First one we went to was Hemsley.
Very nice place (allthough the potholes during the drive on to the property were a lot less nice
), very nice enclosures.I love anything fluffy and any cats, and with not having seen an Ocelot before, it was a great place to strart off the week.
Unfortunately due to my boyfriends bad memory, he got a phonecall from Wingham while only at the park for about 20 minutes asking us if we still wanted to do the Red Panda experience
(voice mail actually, as he didn't pick up on time)
From day 1 he told me it was Thursday (and I asked him later on a couple of times and he kept saying Thursday), and "today" was Wednesday.
Completely upset he calls them back, but they were amazing and said if we could make it for 1.30 we could still do it.
So we had to cut our losses at Hemsley, and left for Wingham (about an hours drive).
Very unprepared, as I didn't bring my normal lens to Hemsley, so we only had 2 bridge camera's to take pictures during the experience, which resulted into sometimes missing a moment, but my boyfriend still managed to get some great shots!
We arrived at Wingham around noon, and went looking for the enclosure straight away, so we knew where to go.
As mentioned, I love cats, and this was an amazing place to see quite a few!
I hadn't seen a Puma in years, so this was a very nice sight, to see 2 of them.
We stayed near the Red Panda enclosure, and their male Kai, was out and about the entire time, so was a bit scared he might not be when it would be time, but at 1.30 both came down from their tree spots and were very present for the full 30 minutes!
It was definately an amazing experience to have done!
Turns out, we had seen Kai as a 5-6 month old cub in Blackpool zoo back in December, so that was really fun to hear that we saw him again at Wingham.
The only animal we didn't get to see was their black panther, he was sleeping inside. We saw his head pop up once in a while though, hehe.
We stayed until closing time, which was 5.30pm.
As we are leaving the Arctic Wolves started howling for quite some time, but when I managed to get my camera out again to film it, they stopped
.The next day we decided to go to Howletts (22/09).
It was nice and sunny, so why not?
We managed to get a free ticket using our Tesco clubcard points too.
Since we only decided in the morning what to do, we didn't get there until about 12.
Somewhere I saw online, it was open until 5pm, and about 5 hours is usually the time we spent at a new place.
We live in the Midlands, and impossible to do a daytrip, but if we would be from the area, we would definately visit Howletts a lot more often.
It was a really nice place, more like walking in a forest.
I really wanted to spot the Crowned Lemur, but when we passed the Lemure walkthrough, it wasn't open yet, and we didn't manage to go back in the end.
I had also never seen a Dhole, or even heard about them.
We only just managed to see everything and left around 5pm, only then to find out it was open until 6pm
On the 24th we went to Fenn Bell, which was only a 10 minute ride from where we were staying.
Such a great little place.
Another animal to check of, a Raccoon Dog, had never seen one before.
Yes, Wingham has them, but we only saw his behind from where he was sleeping.
We didn't see them on our morning visit though.
We stayed for about 2 hours, and then went back to Hemsley! Due to having our first visit cut short, my boyfriend really wanted to go back there, to get the full experience.
The Ocelot was showing off for a very long time, I could just stand there forever!
We had a great chat with one of the keepers when it was time for the Maned Wolves talk, he was very knowledgeable about so many things.
We got talking to another couple there, who suggested the Port Lympne Safari, but we said we're on a motorbike, so that's really a no-no, hehe.
After we were done in Hemsley, we went back to Fenn Bell, and all the animals had just been fed.
We spent about another 1,5 hours there and it took about that long for the Raccoon Dogs to finally show themselves, I kept walking back and forth to the enclosure hoping to spot them.
On the morning of the 25th, our last day or the holiday (the next day we'd drive back home), we were trying to decide what to do.
Boyfriend suggested Blue Water shopping center, but it's just another mall really, and if the weather wasn't great it would have been a nice option.
But it was nice and sunny, and he decided to have a look at Port Lympne.
Turns out you don't drive through the safari bit yourself, but a keeper with a massive truck.
So that changed everything.
I brought my 2 camera's, both 2 batteries each, and I had 3 flat ones, lol.
So both my DSLR batteries I quickly put on charge, for about 30 minutes each, and to my surprise, I took about 900 pictures with only 1 battery.
So we arrived quite "late" (around 1pm), as it was about an hour drive, and by the time we had decided to go, but since it was open until 6.30pm we should be fine.
Normally, we would prefer to go as early as possible, but what can you do ... lol.
This was quite the experience.
It looks so nice and lovely. And the view you get when in certain places, stunning!
Quite a few animals were a no-show, understandable, bit still a bit gutted.
I'd seen a Fossa before when visiting America, but it was curled up sleeping, so was hoping to get a better look this time.
We didn't spot the Red Panda's, Malayan Tapir, Rusty Spotted Cat, Coati, Pallas Cat (though, seen all of them elsewhere, just nice to see them in different places, hehe).
There was a baby Javan Gibbon, maybe 3 weeks old? (I'm not good with animal age estimates, but definately very young, as no hear yet on legs either).
The bear cub was super cute, and fully trashing his house! He was having his paw underneath the wooden boards trying to knock them out, haha!
We also didn't see the Margay, and I had never seen one before, but after coming back home, my boyfriend read it had passed away
somewhere around that date, so that may have been why.Both Lynxes were such posers, so cute! And the Fishing Cat was just being fed some fishies, and the keeper noticed we were standing at the glass, so she threw some in front of it, so we could have a good look.
Be very warned about Port Lympne, if you're having trouble walking.
They told us at the entrance there's a hilly bit in the end, but wauw, I was exhausted when we made it back up, could not take another step. Luckily our timeslot for the safari was straight after we made it up, so I could sit for about an hour.
Some Giraffes making it quite difficult, as they didn't want to get of the road, lol.
And when we got to the Przewalski Horses, the guide had already said "horse" maybe 5 times, yet someone behind us kept saying "oh look it's a donkey!!" Ugh ........
We also saw a baby Capybara, omg, how cute?? The guide said it was about 2 weeks old.
This was such a nice place, I really wouldn't mind visiting again sometime, but then obviously from the moment it would open.
And if we would have, after a nice sit down, I could have definately go around for a second time.
We had about an hour left after the safari, and boyfriend kind of wanted to go around again, and he's quite the walker, so maybe he could have done that in an hour, not sure, but I was beat, and we just hung around with the Lions and Tigers near the entrance.
Sadly, the gift shop had already closed by then too.
Does anyone know if Port Lympne has a guide book like Howletts has one?
All in all, it was a great week, lots of walking, loads of animals (and we did go and visit some towns too
).And with travelling back on Monday, work Tuesday-Thursday, I can now enjoy myself going through about 5.000 pictures.
