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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Vandalur Zoo

After atleast a year of planning, we finally went to Vandalur Zoo on Saturday. Though we were dithering because of the expected crowd during the 4 days of Pongal. And plus Dadda didn't want to walk- err he might have aswell seen discovery channel at home if one doesn't want to walk.
This time I had used my sure sort stragety- Ramban- err, Ram's arrow- telling the kids Dadda is taking them to the zoo- so obviously they wouldn't rest for the entire long weekend until we actually took them to the zoo.
We reached the zoo at around 3-ish and thankfully there was a good cloud cover- so atleast for an hour we had a cool-ish walk. There were buggies that could be taken and they stop at strategic locations and then honk like hell to call you back, but then they are for the faint hearted who cannot do a 2 hour plus walk. I admit I was feeling a bit faint towards the end and and went on asking the kids if they were also tired. However, my little darlings braved on and had they said yes they are tired, I wouldn't have been of any help either.
We also did not do the lion safari as it is not really sure that you may spot a lion in the wild.
So the first stop was at the duck pond.- My family and other animals below... And then the langur monkeys and a huge chimpanzee who refused to come within camera range
The peacocks
Silver peacock
A very curious hornbill
A pair of majestic grey eagle and many colorful crested parrot like birds
And then there were deers, sambhar, bison, Ass, an otter even and assorted others whom we crossed in a haste to reach
The main attraction- lioness
and Lion
The tiger pair far inside

Here, take a closer look- this was the "hand wash" tiger as the kids put it- it was cleaning itself like crazy
And there he is again- pacing the far end of the enclosure
The white tiger pacingthe wall and roaring at intervals
Bears Jaguars .....and
Leopard- labelled as Panther- kids went on insisting that it was leopard and I guess they are right

Many many types of crocodiles, giant lizard type of reptile, turtles, tortoise, a giant squirrel, jackal, and snakes- cobra, python, green chameleonand assorted other snakes

A family of hippos with their vast behinds towards other
A herd of elephants in assorted sizes
A very cute faced pygmy hippo
A pair of giraffes
Zebras that were hardly visible
Lion tailed/ faced monkeys, an aquarium where we did not venture and a butterfly park that we did not care to look for and ostriches. There, I guess we have covered it all.
The zoo is closed on tuesdays and the entry fee is nominal. Value for money definitely. The lions and other large animals get into the cage at 5 pm so it is good to finish well before that. There is a children's park right in the beginning and a few refreshment stalls where you get cold drinks, kulfi, hot drinks, snacks etc.
Carry your own water. Lots of people carry a picnic inside. Eatables with plastic cover not allowed.

6 comments:

Minka said...

the lion safari is good - although I don't think you can really call it seeing a lion in the wild. It's more like you in a caged van looking at 15-20 lions less than 15 feet away .

And after the effort I made to walk around and take D in the spiffy electric car , he bawled because he didn't get to go in the khatara green train thingy !

Gayatri said...

- The boys look all grown up :)...big boys huh :D..God Bless
- I have been putting off this trip 'cause of the long walk...

R said...

this post brought back a lot of memories :)

Itchingtowrite said...

wow Minka, had I known that I wud get to see a large grp of lions, I wud hav done it. but it was so clearly written that one may or may not find a lion, that I thought I 'd better rush and see the caged one atleast- like you know- a lion in hand,.....and all that'

Do it GAyatri- its well worth. take the buggy otherwise

Rampyari- :)

Devasena Hariharan said...

gud that u visited it at this year of the year, else it would have been hot..

There's not much to see, infact u can lose a lots of pounds walking.

Devasena Hariharan said...

that's the only point visiting this place. I was disappointed visiting it