Torquay, the English Riviera

12th - 22nd September 2012

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On Monday, it was time for a visit to Paignton Zoo, owned by the same group who run Living Coasts.  Here we see a black-necked swan with its young (probably).

The initial part of the walkthrough was reminiscent of Jurassic Park where they are looking attentively but can't see any dinosaurs (because they are loose and/or have been eaten by predators).  The lion enclosure was a little like this, but eventually a better vantage point told us that the big guy was kipping.

While Lynne fetched a coffee, Daisy showed how much of a grown-up she could be.  Really, though, she just wanted to go on the slide in the play area opposite.

We had never heard of some of the animals.  This, for example, is an Eastern Bongo.  You learn something new every day.

A trio of orangutans were more familiar, however.

A heron perched on a branch over a lake.

The peacocks and peahens were not particularly shy.

Lynne had spotted something in the trees, thinking they were squirrels or something, but I pointed out that they were in fact monkey-like.  They were on there own little island which was fenced off from the lake so that, presumably, they couldn't interact with the birds.

This emu-like creature (could be an emu) was huge but not exactly willing to do much.  (It's ok, I prefer them to stay still if I'm taking photos.)

A giant tortoise seemed determined to demonstrate its speed, doing a nifty lap of this little course it had possibly worn out for itself.

Here he (or very possibly she) comes on the way back.  It's brilliant how nature can come up with animals so graceful in movement, and animals who just get by, as clumsily as they can.  Go tortoise!

And that's that for the time being.

Then we went into the reptile enclosure, for some crocodile action.

It also featured some crazy-big lilies.

This big guy looked pretty lethargic (can't he at least clean the window), but perhaps he (or she - I've no idea how you tell) is guarding the eggs.

Daisy did not particularly like being in her pushchair for any length of time, so eventually let her loose on some grass, much to the chagrin of some birds, who kept coming to see us before getting chased away by a rapidly crawling Daisy.

Again, the peacocks showed no reluctance in coming very close.

The ostrich and the zebra weren't getting on.  Someone's said something to someone else, but they're just going to have to let it go; they're bigger than this.

The sun was shining brightly now and, over on the far side of the zoo, it was much more serene, not least because Daisy had stopped wanting to get out of the pushchair.  This shows a giraffe doing something other than eating high up branches.

This is the last surviving elephant of Paignton Zoo, having been for some decades I think.  My understanding is that the other elephant passed away a few years ago, so this one is presumably going a little stir crazy on its own.

This is partly the reason why things were more serene.  Unfortunately, during the time we were walking around the big hitters - giraffes and elephants - Daisy had fallen asleep.  She can't do ostrich or tortoise impressions, but she can do a mean elephant.

Cats like to lie around a lot, and the leopard on display here was no exception.  Or it might have been a cheetah.

And that was that.  Of course, when in Paignton whilst the sun is shining, it's rude not to pop to the beach, although as soon as we got there it clouded over a bit and the wind picked up.  But we (Daisy and I) were not to be deterred.  Lynne, though, disappeared to the shops again.

For elevenses, we popped down the road to the Meadfoot Beach Café (you can see Lynne wheeling Daisy in to the seating area), on what was quite a pleasant morning.

It was certainly very sunny and quite warm when in the sun, although it was already a bit breezy.  Daddy and Daisy had a go at trying to look effortlessly cool.

Of course, Daisy wasn't happy with just her own shades.  These look quite a decent fit, surprisingly.

But eventually I persuaded her to have her own shades back.  There's something not quite right here, though.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Exmouth, which is round the coast to the east from Torquay (and a little further northward), which required heading back up to Exeter and then down the other side to get round the River Exe.  When we got there, we parked a little further away from the action than we would have liked but at least we got to walk along the seafront and see the English seaside tradition of buying a box and sitting in it for your holidays.  (They were actually decent-sized boxes with a kitchenette at the back.)  There were also people sat in their cars staring at the sea, another good old British tradition it seems.  We walked for quite a while to get to where the action was, settling for a distinctly average pub lunch in a place which had a large Connect 4 set, much like in Center Parcs.

The reason for going to Exmouth was that it was a brief holiday destination of the Allens during the 1980s.  Click here to find out how we got on many years later.