Port Lympne
Claire Thompson. Waves PR, July 24, 2009
Let me say now – I hate zoos. For a long time I have been a fan of Longleat because it cages the humans rather than the animals (and Lord Bath seems to be a true English eccentric, madder than a bucket of frogs, in the nicest possible way!)
But this time, we headed off to digitally challenged Kent (no hotel broadband, limited phone signals and even the car radio struggled – Digital Britain had definitely not reached these very beautiful parts.) I’d seen Roar! So I knew that Port Lympne was a wide range safari park with animals roaming the Kent countryside. Yeh, right!
Our big treat to mark the first day of the long awaited school holiday was a day at Port Lympne as keepers – we’d all had this day as birthday presents earlier in the year and were beside ourselves with excitement. We were going to feed the lions.
Except we weren’t.
We were shoved in the back of a lorry with 30 other people, perched half on, half off seats, because there wasn’t enough seating for all of us. And ferried around for the day by Ben who was very nice, but would rather have been researching. We handled onlya snake, although in fairness we also scratched the neck of a carefully selected, nice natured rhino through a fence.
The only thing we gained over and above what we would have seen going around on our own was for the kids to go into the tiger enclosure and spray some stuff for tigers to trail. They had a great time. And they were given some Roar goodies and a cerificate at the end of the day. I probably shouldn’t complain, but it’s not much return on an extra £45 per person on top over and above the normal entry fee.
But if we expected to muck out and feed, we were sorely disappointed. The animals were all behind fences or electrified wires in enclosures.
We (or rather the children) threw peanuts at the gorillas, with whom I am now obsessed. They are a whisker away from being human, and as huge, vegetarian empaths, working in harmony with the environment around them, I question which of us is higher on the evolutionary scale.
The gorillas are exceptionally well looked after and healthy, with lots to do. I’m sure the Aspinall Foundation does admirable work, and the fact that so many animals are breeding means they are doing something right.
And we had a terrific break away from it all, so it feels a little cumudgeonly to moan.
If this had been sold as an extended tour for kids, it would have met the description. But billed as ‘keeper for a day’ the tour over-promised and therefore under-delivered. Hugely.
A lesson to anyone in business!
Tags: charity
environment, just because I can! | claireatwaves | 
July 24, 2009 5:12 pm
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