No wonder the rare species are rare...

A Bank Holiday Sunday, so a day out with grandchildren, animals required for entertainment obviously. So off we went to the Rare Species Conservation Trust near Sandwich (just a few miles down the road from Ramsgate). Some beautiful and unusual animals, but for £7 (adult) and £5 (child) we would have hoped for a venue that required more than about 45 minutes to get round (1 ocelot, 2 bears, a few flamingoes, some lemurs and tamarinds, and a few birds, a small alligator and some tortoises. And that was the lot as far as we could tell). Wingham Wildlife Park could easily fill most of a day, for the same price. Wildood takes a couple of hours and to be honest we were a little disappointed in that (partly we're fussy, partly the attention span of 3- and 5-year-olds does pose a challenge). Still size and cost aside, there were some fabulous species to look at...

According to a discussion on the Zoo Beat forum, there are many more species listed and expected - well they weren't visible on our visit - they sound like twice the number we saw, so maybe we were just unlucky that they were away while enclosures were being developed. And the structures were beautifully done. Sadly, we're not likely to return to see... oh well...

In fact the garden centre attached to the Zoo (or is it the other way round) was almost as rewarding - several tanks of goldfish, a pretty pond with some massive fish (koi carp?), some tortoises and a couple of ring-tailed lemurs - without the shock to the wallet...

Tortoise. Sun. Bathing.

And on the way home a visit to Pegwell, and a stroll around the highland cattle. Now they are worth seeing - huge, apparently amiable (but fenced in safely) and generally gorgeous. A great day out, great animals, a couple of nice pictures, and a chance to complain about the cost. All that was missing for the perfect Bank Holiday experience was the rain. Oh well, you can't have everything... Maybe at the end of May...