26th September 2009: Club Meet at Spring gardens, Norton

We arrived in bright sunshine yesterday and had a mild evening followed by a very cold night, at first the sky was clear and the stars were visible, but then a cold fog closed in, and it became very cold indeed, we really missed being on a mains hook up!
We went for a tour round the quiet country roads and eventually ended up at Castleton, to have lunch at our favourite cafe.
As usual it was very pleasant and I set off back over the moor road from Danby to Rosedale when Pat announced that she wanted to visit Flamingo Park, on our way back.
The last time we went there must have been at least 25 years ago and it has grown enormously since!
In those days it was just a Zoo, but now it is a very large Fair ground too, and now is described as a "Theme Park".
The price of entry was £11.50 each for us and at least twice that for adults, so it wasn't cheap, but considering the price if rides at Hull Fair and the fact that you could go on these horrendous rides as often as you dared, it probably represented good value to younger people.
Anyway we thought it worth it for the rather good Zoo!
The first animal's we spotted were the Giraffes, in the same enclosure with the Zebras.
A little further on we were enthralled by the Meerkats, in particular there was a baby that was attracting every ones interest and the visitors cameras were very busy!
This was followed by baboon island were the visitors were throwing fruit across the moat, even though they shouldn't!There were of course some Pelicans and also a couple of really impressive Pelicans, as well as chimps and Kangaroos, Ostriches, Emus, etc, etc., We had a really good time!