As part of Lee's birthday celebrations we decided to use up the last of our Avios points that we'd been saving up and exchange them for a couple of tickets to ZSL Whipsnade. Aside from Twycross and Dudley Zoo which are both near us int he Midlands, it's probably our nearest big zoo. I say zoo, its a bit of an odd one, because as well as entering on foot, you can also drive round the zoo, getting out of your car as and when you like as theres lots of smaller car parks inside. Not quite a safari park though so its a bit odd, and I must say I wasn't that keen on the set up as you have to keep a much closer eye on any kids as there are so many cars bobbing about.
None the less we had a really lovely day, the zoo has some great animal enclosures, and we saw a lot of animals, including elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, tigers and many more.
One of the lovely aspects of the zoo is it's location, and there are some beautiful views across the countryside. Next time we would definitely take a picnic to take advantage of the view!
For lunch we actually headed to The River Cottage Kitchen that they have on site, in partner ship with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. We were expecting good things but actually on the whole we were disappointed. There were only a few choices, which was fine but the Griled Caulifower with Yellow Split peas was so 'al dente' that I'm not convinced it had actually seen a heat source and Imogens childs Beef Ragu had giant sticks of rosemary and other large herbs that she was a bit put off. The potato wedges again were cooked in the very lightest sense of the word. Only the lamb meatballs and the River Cottage own EPA and cider gave us any sense of satisfaction.
Despite the lunch hiccup ( we made up for it later with donuts and ice cream) we had a thoroughly lovely day out. Lesson: take a picnic!
