Dublin Zoo

A new record for the Rules in Ireland, out of the house at 08h00 on a Sunday morning! Roelie had invited us to join him and his family in Tullamore. There was an agricultural fair taking place there and we decided that it sounded like a fun day out and the kids could see a bit of the country. Unfortunately Catherine (Roelie's wife) had a bad night, newborn baby, been there done that(!) so she stayed home. We were merrily following Roelie on the highway, the sun was shining and the day was full of promise, when he pulled over near an exit and we saw him chatting on his mobile... turns out he was listening to the news and heard that the Tullamore Fair had been cancelled.....because of flooding OOPS!!!
Aimee had been so looking forward to seeing all the animals that Roelie decided that a visit to the Dublin zoo at Phoenix Park would be a good alternative. We had been planning to take the kids there at some stage, no time like the present... so we all turned around and went to Phoenix Park. Of course it was still early, 09h30 and the zoo only opened at 10h30 so we went for a little walk to see the Obelisk (pictured above) and then had a quick cappuccino at a little tea room outside the zoo. Aimee thought we were leaving when we left the tea room to go, it was so cute, she said "But Daddy we have not seen any animals yet."

Now the list of animals is long....we saw LOTS, including some idiot sneaking bread to the penguins while his children looked on which was really irritating as there are signs asking people not to feed the animals and as Jessica and Kirstin loudly proclaimed, "Penguins eat FISH".

On your left is the new look reindeer according to a woman standing outside the BONGO enclosure, she was very keen to impart her extensive knowledge to the little sponge brains around her. The fact the the animal happened to be in the African Plains section of the Dublin zoo seemed to escape her. Now to be honest I would not have known that the animal was a Bongo, and on the endangered list, but I did know that it was NOT a reindeer and I have learnt that if you do not know....say nothing!!!!

We were lucky enough to see some baby animals which was really cool, especially because there was a baby long neck! The baby gorilla scored top marks for cuteness and the baby Asian elephant was very shy and stayed half hidden behind his mother! The website for the Dublin zoo is http://www.dublinzoo.ie/ and it is pretty cool, so instead of waffling on about the animals anyone interested can have a look there!

We also experienced a typical Dublin day with regard to the weather, we got caught in 2 showers and took cover twice! The second was fairly amusing as we were in the farmyard section which has a whole lot of little "houses" and I was with the dogs, the kids were with the rabbits and the guys were with the guinea pigs! Luckily both showers were fairly quick affairs and within minutes everyone was walking around like nothing had happened! we all decided that after the second shower it was probably best to call it a day before the heavens really opened. When we got home the sun came out and the clouds rolled away and isn't that just typical! And your lesson for today.....when it looks like it is about to pour in Ireland.... "It is going to lash".