Where the Wild Things are

Mr B headed off to London today, from his new 'local' airport of Dundee. Being a one-car family (until tomorrow, fingers crossed) we all drove up there, and to make the most of the journey, I took the kids to Camperdown Country Park in Dundee - which has a Wildlife Park, adventure park, and lots of space to just run around and be a bit wild.

Well, that was the plan anyway.

What actually happened was that I drove around and around the northern parts of Dundee (at one point we saw a 'Welcome to Angus' sign and I realised things had gone very wrong). On the point of giving up and asking someone for directions, we were suddenly there. Given that it is about 100 yards from the by-pass I don't know how we missed it.

Anyway, the Park was a lot of fun. Wildlife parks that have animals in cages always freak me out a bit. I'm happier with the parks where we drive around in our little cages and look at the animals in huge enclosures. Still, I remind myself often of the educational benefits, exemplified today by two young brothers in front of the grey wolves.

"Hey wolfie wolfie. Woof woof! Ha ha ha ha."

"Shut up, they're really cool. Look at their eyes."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Where are they supposed to live then?"

Here's a wild cat. They had a couple of enclosures with a couple of cats in each one. To me, I have to say, they just looked like tabbies with slightly surprised tails, and one of them even answered to "here puss puss". But it may just have been sizing me up as prey. Look at those eyes though. Those creatures shouldn't be in cages. But then, one day the wildcats in cages will be the only purebred ones left (they interbreed with domestic cats) - if indeed these are purebred. But then again, does that matter?

Anyway, after the park we headed off towards home, with a little stop at Tentsmuir Forest park near Leuchars. What a place. Huge forest, dune system and beach. And a great beach for kids, with sandbanks, lagoons and loads of space to spread out. My two pulled the usual "oh we're not going to get wet, just maybe paddle a bit" trick (within two minutes they had stripped off their trousers and plunged in). This was around 5pm, so it was getting cool. After about 20 minutes I insisted that it was nearly time to go and pointed out to Conor (who didn't have a spare t-shirt) that he'd be cold on long walk back to the car. Right on cue he started shivering so much he could barely speak. I ended up taking off my vest and tying it around him caveman style so he could have some kind of covering.

Fab place though: we will be back for a full day some time soon with picnic, towels and swimming costumes.