Gypsy Soul to Blame: Hubby Steals the Day at Colchester Zoo

Alright, anybody that knows Lee knows that he is animal obsessed. Doesn't matter if they are deadly or just deadly cute, he loves them and it is so much fun to watch him be so excited. Since he has been such a good sport with being dragged to historical locations, I decided he needed a treat so we headed to the zoo! Colchester Zoo is a great zoo, Trip-advisor ranked it as a top 20 zoo in the world and top 10 in the UK so we knew that it would be a great day! Anyways, since this day was Lee's kind of day, I thought he would be the best person to tell you all about our day. Sit back, relax and enjoy Lee's thoughts on our zoo trip!

Hi everybody, Lee here. What an amazing day, let me tell you! First off, let me explain why we went to the zoo. We had just gotten a new camera lens so we wanted to test it out, which led to us going to zoo. So the first place we went we saw a stingray and a couple baby komodo dragons. Apparently they had to remove the babies from the parents because they are very susceptible to being attacked by the adults. Then we walked outside the little building and there were some Red titi monkeys.

Next up were some penguins that you could probably hire as bouncers at a club. The reason why I say that is because these penguins kicked the sea-lions out of the enclosure! What had happened was the sea-lions had been moved to a larger area.

The penguins even had some toys underwater with them. What the toy was was a rope that was tied to the ground and threaded through some balls before getting knotted on the end. The penguins seemed to really like the knotted end of the rope where it had started to fray and fan out, similar to how Madison's hair would if she was underwater.

After we left the penguins we had some impeccable timing and ran into the "bears of the rising sun" just after they were let out. As we were standing there looking at the 2 bears the zoo keeper was telling about how their real names are the sun bears, but they are sometimes called dog bears because of their small size (it is the smallest of the 8 bear species) and the honey bear (apparently it LOVES honey).

Since bears are so smart and strong the zoo keeper said the workers/zoo have to do things to challenge them mentally and also to make them use their muscles.So what the keepers do is they will hide their food or put it in a hard to reach place.

Get ready.....

Push!!!!!

From there we went and saw what was, I believe, the spider monkeys. There was one monkey that reminded me very much of me, all he was doing was eating and nothing could get him to quit.

No matter what the visitors were doing around him.

After we saw the spider monkeys Madison said that she wanted to see the orangutans now, so we started looking for signs telling us which way to go. Lo and behold when we found the signs they said that we had to turn around to get there. Since we turned around we walked by the bears again so I had to take another look, because you never know, there may be a photo-op waiting around the corner.

Here is that photo-op

After we walked for a little bit I was starting to think that maybe we missed the turn that we needed, so we turned around, yet again, headed back in our original direction. The next animal we happened upon was a sign reading "mangabey monkey". I wanted to take a look real quick to before we moved on for the orangutans because, once again, you never know what you'll find. The scene that unfolded before us was that of a mother and baby, the mother grooming the baby while the baby suckled.

At that point Madison was beginning to worry that I wouldn't find the orangutans so it became my personal mission to find them next. So we turned around, again! We vowed that we weren't going to stop again until we found them. As we walked (following signs the entire way) into a tunnel that was underwater, I was quite surprised to see something coming at me that seemed almost like a missile! After looking a little closer at the "missiles" we realized that this was where the sea-lions had been moved to. After we walked through the sea-lion tunnel we found the orangutans, but was too crowded to get a very good view, so we promised them that we would be back later to take their photographs.

When we left the orangutans we decided to explore using a modified track phrase, we were saying "run fast, turn right." As we were walking and turning right we stumbled upon an awe inspiring sight, the mother and mangabey monkeys from earlier in what seemed to be a hug.

Can't you see the love?

Not even 5 minutes away we saw one of my favorite Disney characters, Timon, and the rest of his family. I was soooo entranced, the baby meerkats were the cutest things ever!!! There were 3 of them, and we both loved watching them play, especially I did.

All 3 of them were born on July 11th

After Madison drug me away from the meerkats and i finally turned around we were face to face with the rulers of the plains, the lions. We saw the work horse of the pair (the female) lounging around and the lazy one (the male) laying around as well.

As we walked around looking at some of the different animals we saw a closed door. I decided to try it, and since it wasn't locked, we went in and I know that at least i was surprised as I was almost run over by a wallaby! There was a path for us to use as we walked through the wallaby enclosure while the wallabies had free reign of the entire place, including our path.

After we walked through the wallaby enclosure I was quite happy to see the last member of the "Lion King" tri-fecta, Pumba, with his mother (he was only born on June 10th). We wandered a little farther we saw a true miniature deer. The "Dik Dik" is a deer that only grows to be approximately 14 inches tall!

Hakuna matata mom!

From there we meandered around a bit and we found another one of the cutest animals ever, a baby rhinoceros! He was such a cutie and he wouldn't leave his mother, at the most he circled around her. I suppose I can't blame him though, since he was born on July 11th.

Looks like somebody still doesn't quite know how to use those legs!

The rhinos were in the same pen as the ostriches and the zebras, and across from them in a larger pen were like 3 full grown elephants, one of which im sure was a female trying to get a ride out of the zoo.

Look at her showing off her leg

As Madison was dragging me away from the rhinos (I really loved that little guy!) I looked back and we saw the ostriches running around.

Wonder who won the race?

Since we were leaving the African animals and I didn't have any animals to distract me, I realized I was starving, so I drug Madison off to find some food. After I had my chicken sandwich we were off yet again. Our first post lunch adventure led us into the primate area. We saw a number of different monkeys and even a chimpanzee that was very interested in what was on the floor.

After our primate party that we had we started backtracking, not mistakenly, until we found the 2 red pandas and the golden headed tamarin. We managed to get there just as the red pandas were being fed their lunch of bamboo leaves. The dang tamarin was a pain in the butt to get a picture of, he was so dang hyperactive! I don't think he stopped moving for more than 30 seconds at a time.

Lunchtime anyone?

Finally gotcha buster

By now I was starting to get tired, so we went to keep our promise, and headed back to the orangutans. Madison was so excited when we made it there and one of the orangutans was stuffing straw into a sack.

We stood there for a while letting Madison study her favorite orange primate while he studied her. Sadly at this point I had to pull her aside and tell her it was time to go home, I had had a very long and exciting day and was getting tired.