Day 7 Monkey World

21months 14days

Well, when I was searching for things to do with Katie, just her and I for some of the holiday, I came across a few options. One in particular stood out. Monkey World. How could I not??!

We woke to the first heavy rain of the holiday, but nothing was going to stop us going. I had told Katie we were going to see lots of monkeys and she practically pushed me out the door, trying to chivvy me along to go quicker to get ready. She then slept the entire journey!

She was so excited when we got in and she saw the chimpanzees. She ran, despite the rain, between all the enclosures and viewing points, having a fabulous time splashing in the big puddles in her puddlesuit and wellies. She ran up to a babboon in one enclosure and tried ot give him a high five through the glass. She ran up to another enclosure, shouting hello, and the monkey ran up to her and put his hand to the window back. It made her jump a lot!

She insisted on taking off her wellies and had a play in the park in her socks. THey soon came off too. She saw a lady preparing the monkeys food, carrots at the time she was watching. SHe later said to me "monkeys eat it carrots". She saw another lady preparing cucumbers later and said "monkeys eat it carrots and cucumber". And she's remembered it 5 days on!

We sat for a snack before she looked round at more more monkeys. She went on some brilliant but strange swings - one like a deckchair on chains, one like a trapeze, with a suspended seat. Possibly designed for monkeys?? We then walked in the walkthrough marmaset and lemur enclosure. This she thought fantastic. As the blip shows. The lemurs were all asleep, on the apex of their home, in one long row, all snuggled together.

We saw some baboons. One came up to me at the glass and kissed it. Katie put her raisins on the windowsill to the enclosure and he tried to get them through the glass.

We went for lunch in their cafeteria. She went in the soft play, which has a glass wall on one side, with a monkey area on the other. She thought it great that she could play AND watch the monkeys! But it was all a bit too exciting for food. She went on a little ride, and begged me to put the penny in, having seen someone else put money in it. She then begged to come out.

We went to the shop, bought a few pressies - and only left with one monkey for Katie, little holiday monkey. By the time we'd finished shopping, not only had the rain stopped, the sun was breaking through and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. We went into another big park, with the biggest toddler swing imaginable. She ate a HUGE ice cream, saw lots more monkeys, and was beat. Utterly beat. She was asleep in the car before we got out their lane.

All the above was a fabulous day, a busy day. But because she had a very late sleep (woke up at 4.45, eek!) when she woke from her sleep, and declared she wanted a walk, I was happy to oblige. Plus it was our last day of this bit of holiday. We walked down to the beach, she begged for another ice cream - I found a shop doing teeny toddler cones, and we sat watching the beach and sea as she ate. We then spent a wonderful hour playing in the sand before exploring the backstreets by the harbous.

We walked up through the gardens, she sat digging in the gravel, before running the whole way up the rest of the gardens and the hill to the house. At 8pm she was still wide awake and full of beans, loving every last minute of our last day of this amazing bit of our holiday. A bath for my sandstained, muddy, tired but very happy girly, and that was the end of her brilliant day.