In all the years I have been visiting the three towns area, and latterly, living in it... I have never before been to the Welsh Mountain Zoo.
Well, today, I had family visiting, and the continued poor weather meant no work for me... so a visit to the zoo seemed like a good idea.
As it turns out it was a GREAT idea.
I had often imagined that it would be quite a low budget, bargain basement sort of place, but it is really a quite impressive attraction for the area. I can definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a reasonably priced and interesting day out.
It is not easy to find, up a single track road, but once inside you can wander around and meet all kinds of exotic creatures at close quarters. There are also very good (and moderately priced) cafe facilities.
From the car park, we followed the map to the sealion pool, which was worth the admission fee on its own. There is a very informative show, but if you just want to sit and watch them glide around underwater there is a glass-walled viewing pool which allows you to spend as much time as you want there, its quite hypnotic.
From there, we went to watch the Humboldt Penguins feeding time. But there is a twist! The penguins come parading out onto the grass, amongst the spectators, and they are highly tame and comical. See the pictures below.
We saw Bears, Reptiles, Camels, Condors, Marsupials a Red Panda,.... and some very entertaining Meerkats.
In fact I won't spoil it by listing any more animals, I will leave it for you to discover.
Below are just a few pictures taken either on my phone or on my daughters 'point and shoot', so the quality isn't as great as we have come to expect on the Forum.
The final picture is of a Gecko lizard that I nearly trod on!! It was on a path near the car park, and when my daughter pointed it out to a handler, he said it had long since escaped, and would be returned to the lizard house after a very long absence!
Furthermore, he said that back in the 60's, many snakes had escaped, the descendants of which are seen quite often these days in the area surrounding the zoo!