Tuesday we woke up fairly early. 6am is fairly early, right? Well, at 6am it was 4am in London so THAT is fairly early. We had work out boot camp with Marisa as our personal trainer and goodness gracious, she really worked us hard. Anyway we had a fun outing planned. We had breakfast in the common room and I chatted with some of the girls. Hilarious Chanel, who fittingly won the Miss Personality title last year asked why I was so shy –I said that I liked observing and I was observing them communicate in sign language as I wanted to learn and she said she’ll teach me- then stated that she saw that I crowned Miss Personality in 2011. We had the personality title in common haha! I had begun to warm up to the rest of the girls and began to actively use sign-language as I learned more of it. After breakfast it was off to the zoo!
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| Selfie outside the zoo with Alexis (I obviously need more selfie taking practice |
Arriving at the zoo, I was quite excited as I really love
animals. We got off the bus and posed for a couple of photos. We entered the
Lory Park Zoo and immediately I was in my element. Upon entering we were
greeted by tall enclosures of birds that were so shy that they flew away when
we approached the cages. How anti-social. But not to worry; we saw a meerkat
enclosure opposite the entrance bird cages and they are such really cute little
things that I really wanted to take one home with me. One was standing
attentively on its hind legs and only turned to glance uninterestingly at us
before staring out at…nothing. Well, I couldn’t see anything interesting that had
her captivated (it was pregnant).
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| Meerkat looking away |
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| Meerkat looking at me |
After the meerkats there was a koi pond full
of brightly coloured fish. A lot of us were so captivated by the sights before
us but we were told to hurry up and we obliged, heads craning to take fleeting
glances at the various animals and birds we passed. We arrived at a dining area
and there was a cage with a fervent Cockatoo. I shouted “hello” at and to my
surprise, it said “hello” back. I had to stop and say “hello” again because I
wasn’t sure I had hear right. Again it replied. I was delighted! The bird could
talk greet! I mentioned to the other girls that the bird said “hello”
and those who could hear it were delighted as well. Soon after we were sitting
and waiting for further instructions. We were told to keep together and not
wander off but after a while Alexis and I grew restless and went to look at the
parrots’, iguana, jaguar and rabbit enclosures nearby until we were called
back. We ordered food for lunch then took a couple of photos. After this we
were asked to choose one animal we would like to pet. *Cue Andy Dwyer like over-excitement
from me* It was sad that we were only to choose one animal out of a few select
choices, but I wasn’t sad any longer because we were told we could meet two
animals each. Yus! I chose to meet the jaguars and an owl.
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| This little friendly and cute pookie-poo offered us its head to scratch |
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| The girls doing what they were doing here |
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| Amy, Elrie and Xolisile. "Look at these chompers!" Predators. |
We set off to meet some animals with the first stop being
the snow lion cub’s enclosure. I watched from outside the fence as those who
choice to meet them took photos. The cubs’ enclosure was right near the baby
hyena’s enclosure –on which fence I was leaning on- and Narda commented that
they had really long penises which cracked me up! So many girls had chosen to
touch the cubs and it took a really long time. I wandered back to the talking
parrot and said a hello. It said “hello” back then I said hello back again and
then…it stopped talking to me. It gave me a look that said, ‘oh boy, this
girl…’ then it pretended to be asleep. Smh, how rude. After the cubs it was the
hyenas then we off to the baby jaguar’s enclosure! Before this, we had only
seen one jaguar but I was pleasantly surprised to see there were three in
total, and two had come out from wherever they were hiding. There were 2 ink
black jaguars and one spotted one. Three of us at a time entered the enclosure
and I had all run across my lap and they were quite enamored with my hair but
they weren’t even allowed to come near it so I had to gently push their paws
away. Their paws! They were huge! The better to slap prey with, I bet. The
jaguars were so cute and fluffy and aww inducing. I wanted to take at least one
home with me (to be quite honest, I wanted to take a lot of those animals
home!)
*Photos were done and the next group came in. Soon after, we were called
for lunch inside the lapa (dining area) and after eating one of the zoo helpers
entered with a snake and said those who wanted to meet a snake should come out.
I had not chosen a snake as I already had the experience of wearing a python
around my neck before.
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| Me with a python in 2011. Photo courtesy of Eventpho Photography |
I went outside to watch some of the girls, the
organisers and Marisa get that experience. Beauty, who has a fear of snakes,
was brave enough to try and hold one but she freaked out before she could
properly hold it and ran away. No amount of coaxing and it-doesn’t-bites were
enough to have her hold it again.
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| Me with |
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| Don't be fooled by those eyes people. Sweetest bird I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. |
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| Chanel and I thinking about how we'll make an escape with the cub. |
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| How cute!? |
After that the entire group went back into the lion cubs’
enclosure for a group photo (and I got to stroke the cubs yay!) then after we
came out we met the MC for the Saturday final and wow I was amazed at how big
he was. He’s a body builder and model people! And he was so nice! We took yet
another group picture with him and we were allowed to wander off to have a look
at the rest of the animals. We saw some fully grown lions (one angrily leaped
at the fence when we approached and said hi. Goodness gracious, some of the
animals are unbelievably rude. Tsk tsk), leopards and Bengal tigers. I
approached one exquisite Bengal tiger, saying something along the lines of,
“Richard Parker! How nice to meet you here. Won’t you smile for the camera? You
were in that movie, Life of Pi right?” and I may or may have not asked for its
autograph. It wasn’t interested, judging by it looking away and if tigers could
roll their eyes in annoyance…
We saw a couple more animals and Alexis fed a banana to two
unfriendly but greedy monkeys. Since we were near the exit/entrance we went
back to the meerkat enclosure, waiting for the rest of the company to catch up
and to have the doors opened for us. The pregnant meerkat was still on standing
upright, gazing at air and every time I called out to it, it would give me a
glance then go back to gazing at whatever it was gazing at again. Its fellow
companions were in the dirt, digging a hole. I talked to the girls as we waited
then went back to the meerkats, showing them an apple to get their attention
and my, how they scampered up to me! I didn’t give them the apple though, as I
didn’t have permission to do but not to worry, they were soon fed. They were
fed a plate of what looks like chicken heads and guts with a few apple chunks
mixed in…yikes! I changed my mind about wanting to own a meerkat.
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| "Who wants a banana!?" |
Thanks to the Lory Park zoo for sponsoring us with a lovely afternoon!
Stay tuned for Wednesday’s diary.
‘Til next time
-Bella
*I do not have the official photos at this time as we were
told to not take photos as we had an official photographer but as soon as they
are released, I will take update the posts with them.
