London’s temperature has dropped significantly over the last few weeks and I can’t help but think that the end of summer is truly gone. Thankfully yesterday’s weather was quite good despite the cold temperatures with generally cloudless blue skies and so I thought it would be nice to take a trip out to the London Zoo. I have heard many great things about the zoo so it was off to Camden for the morning.
The Zoo is nestled inside Regent’s Park with the entrance walking distance from the Camden Town tube station. The zoo is not as big as many other ones around the world, but considering where it is located and the number of animals they have on show, it still occupied a good part of the day and you could easily spend more time here if you lazily walked around.
We managed to see almost all of the animal enclosures and I think that next time I would skip the Aquarium part, especially considering it is nothing like Underwater World back home, or that the London Aquarium is on the other side of town.
I really enjoyed the caterpillar-shaped butterfly enclosure that was filled with so many of them that more often than not a butterfly would land on you. The pink flamingos were also quite a nice site, and even more so, the strangely pink-tinged White Pelicans (who apparently turn pink in spring).
The zoo even has a couple of native Australian animals such as the Kangaroo and the Emu, but like at most zoos I’ve been to, the Kangaroo was simply nestled comfortably in one corner of the ground soaking up some rays.
They also run a number of shows throughout the day, and we caught the ‘Animals in Action’ one where we could see animals doing all the things that they normally do, including a South American Macaw, a Vulture, a number of rats, and a Lemur. Each of the animals involved obviously looked extremely well trained with a couple of them even really taking to all the attention and the limelight of the stage.
The trip to the day was a great thing to do when you’re in the middle of London and feel like escaping all the people (though be prepared to be surrounded by screaming or crying children instead). There’s even in the middle of building the Gorilla enclosure that will be finished in 2007 sometime which is already looking quite impressive.
Charcoal cooking is guaranteed to be an amazing dining experience, especially when it is done at an Argentinean restaurant, where they part delicate smoky flavours to their food over a parilla (an Argentine charcoal grill). Quite recently I was able to indulge in a wonderful meal at Buen Ayre up in Broadway Market (see my thoughts on another restaurant close by called The Dove). 
