I've been to Newquay, Dartmoor, Living Coasts and Monkey World so far this year, but Paignton is my natural habitat.
It's always good to see new arrivals: Gorilla, Matadi, and Swamp Monkey, Swoozie, moving from Twycross and settling in very well; the new Amphibian centre (I hadn't realised how interested I am in frogs); the births of a Giraffe, White Faced Saki, six Cusimanses and one of Pertinax's Mangabeys were particularly enjoyable. But (bunny-hugging warning) maybe my highlight was a very close encounter with 12 year old Gorilla, Kumbuka. He's not normally in the showden so I usually see him outside, but on this morning he was indoors and he climbed over the netting to where I was standing and stared at me for a few minutes. I was glad of the thick glass between us but got a friendly vibe from him and was quite awe-struck.
Low point: paying 70p for the embarrassment of going on the train ride, hoping for photographic opportunities from the other side of the lake and just finding a thick hedge.