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Cricket St. Thomas Wildlife Experience

Posted by Nick on 29-07-2009

I always thought the phrase 'being at one with nature' meant doing your bit for the environment and being nice to animals. I never realised it meant mucking out camels, chopping up bowl upon bowl of fruit and getting jumped on by tiny monkeys.

But, as I found out when I visited Warner Leisure Hotels' Cricket St. Thomas to take part in their Wildlife Experience, it means just that - and more! And, I have to say, I loved every minute of it.

I went on the break with my girlfriend Em - I booked it as a present for her, knowing I would then have an excuse to give the Experience a go myself!

It's amazing how much you take for granted when going to a zoo, or even watching zoo documentaries on television. Andy, the park's head of education, started the day by explaining the ins and outs of a zookeeper's day, as well as telling us how conservation programmes work and how different real zookeeper life is to the one enjoyed by those shown in the aforementioned documentaries.

After our talk, we went to muck out the camels (joy!). It was a job that took eight of us 45 minutes, but that would usually take one zookeeper just 20 minutes. Although the camels were shut out, the emus that share the enclosure were not. Despite their fearsome reputation, they just wanted to be nosey -they let you stroke them, but it was still slightly unnerving being watched by birds that can look a grown person in the eye and are capable of running at 30 mph!

Talking of animals capable of hitting high speeds, we then paid a trip to see Jango, the park's cheetah. Andy fed him a couple of scraps of meat (his main meal was due later that day, these were just treats), and it was fairly awe-inspiring to see such a powerful, fast creature so close - we were the other side of a fence, but still only a matter of inches from Jango.

In the afternoon, we went to meet Taz and Debbie, the park's very friendly tapirs. Related to both the horse and the rhino, tapirs act like a soppy family dog but feel like a miniature tank to stroke - their skin feels at least an inch thick. Domesticated animals aside, I have never met such friendly creatures; all they wanted was to be fussed over by us all, snuggling next to us to have their picture taken.

We finally (and reluctantly) said goodbye to the tapirs and headed off to prepare the lemur food. This basically involved slicing countless apples, pears, bananas and oranges, as well as chucking in a handful of grapes and adding the vital vitamins the animals need to stay healthy.

Cricket St. Thomas is blessed with Lemur Wood, one of the finest natural lemur habitats in the world outside their native Madagascar. Here the lemurs are free to do as they please (three particularly naughty ones escape every day to chase each other around the rest of the park), and it was only a matter of time before everyone in our group had a lemur eating greedily from our bowl.

Once the lemurs had finished, we headed back, our Experience over - although there was still time for me and Em to get mobbed by the marmosets that live in the trees around the park.

By the end of the day, we were both tired - but we had been thoroughly entertained, hugely informed, had enjoyed some once-in-a-lifetime moments and had a real respect for the knowledge, patience and skill it takes to be a zookeeper.

Many thanks to Warner Leisure Hotels for giving us this wonderful experience - it was very enjoyable!

Posted by Nick on 29-07-2009 | 1 Comment | Leave a Comment…

Marcus is a daddy!

Posted by Nick on 08-07-2009

Everyone at Theme Group would like to pass their congratulations to Marcus, who, on Tuesday, became a daddy for the first time.

After months of eager anticipation on Marcus's part - including buying an almost endless supply of Arsenal babygrows - the wait was finally over at 9.46am when his son was born.

They are yet to decide on a name, but the boy weighed in at 6lbs 14oz. Mother and baby are both doing fine. We hope to get an update from Marcus, as well as some pictures, once he has stopped bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Posted by Nick on 08-07-2009 | 1 Comment | Leave a Comment…