A favourite cache - Howlett's Zoo

So Small is having his 2nd nap of the day (yes, at 10:45 - we got at up 5:30 *sigh*), so I am taking the opportunity to tell you about my favourite cache so far.

We went on holiday with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law to Kent recently. It was my parent's Ruby wedding anniversary, and our first holiday with Sam. Kent doesn't sound terribly exciting, but it was about 2.5 hours drive for all of us, so was the perfect location. It was a lovely break, but this isn't a travel blog, so I shall get to the point - GEOCACHING!

We were staying in a village just outside Canterbury, and very close to Howlett's Zoo. Of course, I checked out the local geocaches before we left, as my mum is getting into it as well. The one that most interested me was The Elephant House. There is a public footpath right through the Zoo!

My mum and I set off from the house at about 5pm, doing a walk taking in Well Chapel as well as the Elephant House. Well Chapel was a tough find as the coords were clearly out by quite a way, and the contents of the cache were all mouldy. Urgh. So we were a bit late getting to the Zoo.

The footpath was clearly not well known or maintained, but I guess they don't really want to encourage people to walk through the Zoo for free (it is £18 per person!). But once we found it we started pushing our way through the overgrown plants. We very quickly came across Warthogs, who were very excited to see us:

And then Clouded Leopard - with babies!

We had a couple of bridges to cross, presumably so the Zoo wasn't completely cut in two by the path. And then we saw our first Elephant! I have always had a bit of a thing about Elephants, so I was quite excited, but as we walked our views just got better and better, until we had an entire family walk right past us! None of my photos did the experience justice, but here are a few:

Finally we got to the end and found the cache:

You can just about spot an elephant in the background!

By this time we were really late, and there was almost no mobile signal at the house so we couldn't ring home and tell the others to put dinner on, so we made ready to walk home at a fast pace... but on the way back we just had to stop for a moment to see the Lemurs! I didn't take any photos as we were in a rush, but my sister went the next day and took this lovely photo:

Definitely my favourite cache so far!