22nd October 2016

Another gorgeous day greeted us. How lucky we’ve been with the October weather. As we stood on the balcony, gazing out to sea before breakfast, we watched several swimmers cutting through the water, undoubtedly covering at least half a mile across the bay as we gazed in awe. They were too far out to tell if they were wearing wetsuits, but our ferry captain from the previous day had mentioned that, if we were to sink, the sea was at its warmest at 14 degrees.

After breakfast, we made our way to the bus stop outside the hotel, and waited for the service into town. As we chatted with a few other passengers, I discovered that one couple used to live in Thurcroft, and, to my astonishment, the wife had been a teacher at Dinnington High School when I was a pupil there! She taught Domestic Science, which I had taken as a subject filler when doing my A levels. She must have been the young, new teacher I faintly remember who taught me! What a small world.

Today, we were fulfilling one of Sue’s wishes by visiting Gerald Durrell’s Wildlife Park. Sue had read his book ‘My Family and Other Animals’ for her ‘O-levels’, we had visited his home in Corfu, and we’d also watched the recent TV series about his childhood. It was a definite ‘must-do’ while we were here.

We caught a bus to St. Helier, then transferred to another one that took us out to the ‘Durrell ‘ Wildlife Park.

After paying our entrance fee, we grabbed a map and set off to follow the schedule for the Specialist Talks. Unfortunately, we missed the first one at the bear enclosure by just 10 minutes, but luckily, we were in time to watch the bears being fed, which was a spectacle in itself.

Next, we visited the gorillas. As expected, the staff were incredibly knowledgeable, weaving a variety of amusing anecdotes into their talk. It was clear they had a real connection with the animals, and their stories added a personal touch to the experience, making it even more enjoyable.

We diverted from our route to see the reptiles, aviary, and charming meerkats before settling in for the talk on the orangutans. The ones on display were from Sumatra, and sadly, more endangered than those we’d seen in Borneo. To be honest, they looked much the same to me, but their playful manner came with a reminder not to get too close.

We missed the talk on the Jersey choughs, having spent too long admiring the Aye Ayes in their dimly lit enclosure and the reptiles in their hothouse. However, we did manage to take in the splendid flamingos and a variety of other waterfowl before heading into the fruit bat cage.

The talk on fruit bats was fascinating. Though we’ve seen plenty of these large, sinister-looking creatures over the years, whether roosting high in trees, flying overhead, or hanging upside down along telegraph wires, this was different. These bats were just inches away, on the other side of the netting, crawling across it with their spiky little hooks, either squabbling with one another or attempting to reach into the attached food pots (often in vain). They had surprisingly sweet faces, and up close, they didn’t seem devilish at all, almost cuddlesome, in fact. They did poop a lot, though, so I wasn’t about to take any chances.

After a visit to the souvenir shop, we reversed our journey back to our hotel. That evening, we chose to eat in the hotel restaurant, before idling in the bar until bedtime.