Day 18 - Hamilton

And we survived another bnb! Without the second b. Also it was in a way less dodgy place. The couple weren't around when I woke up, so I had my up& go ( normal, not protein and it was so quick to drink!) And got dressed and packed and quietly left the house. I drove almost all the way back to Maddy's place where there was a lookout, so I went for a short walk up there to get a view of the city. It was a nice time just praying to God and handing over next year's worries to him.
After that I took my ring off to put sunscreen on and left it on the centre console. By the time I arrived at the zoo it had all fallen apart in the cup holder! But I managed to put it back together without instructions, fairly quickly!! So pleased. I got to the zoo at basically opening time and bought my ticket, got a map, and got walking! We started in the rainforest section which had a lot of monkeys of different kinds, and then as I walked past the ducks in a very algae filled lake, I saw the zookeepers walking with the tigers!! I was a bit confused because I was about to walk over to the tigers and didn't know if I'd find any. Turns out they were going for a walk while the other keepers put the meat in the enclosure for them to find when they got back. So after about ten minutes of waiting, in which I agree my own muesli bar, the tiger came back, climbed up a tree and got his meat! It was epic to watch! The next thing I was keen to go see were the giraffes so I headed back that way and got to see two giant giraffes eating their lunch from a very tall like! Then I went to the rest of the savannah enclosure (the giraffes had been moved to the wetlands) and saw ostriches, zebra, and bison. Ostriches are ginormous!! The last big thing I got to see were southern white rhinos, they were so majestic, I'm not sure if ever seen rhinos before!! They were very snoozy in the heat, I was sweating like crazy.
After the zoo I drove over to the gardens. The entry was under construction so we started in the English gardens themselves. First I got lunch, a lamb and rosemary pie, from the cafe and ate that by the water. Then I bought a map so I could keep track of where I was going and wandered from left to right. They were specular. I was speechless. The gardens were really fun because I could come and go as I pleased, and unlike the zoo I never had to wait for anything to appear! There were a bunch of school kids on vacation care though who were a bit crazy so we were all trying to avoid their path.Read more