Days Out: Howl-o-ween at Paradise Wildlife Park

Paradise Wildlife Park has been on my "must visit" list for a while now; we only live about 40 minutes away from the Hertfordshire-based park but I had never managed to be quite organised enough to get us there. When Paradise Wildlife Park contacted me to find out if I'd like to visit and become a blogger ambassador, I was delighted. Almost as delighted as Little N who asked if there would be pigs there. "Oh, I don't know" I said, "but there will definitely be something even more exciting!" 

Paradise Wildlife Park is an award-winning, family-run Wildlife Park set in the beautiful surroundings of Broxbourne Woods in the Hertfordshire Countryside. It is home to over four hundred exotic wild animals and the success of Paradise Wildlife Park has allowed it to make contributions of over £5,000,000 to conservation projects and wildlife causes in the UK and around the World. 

During half term, from October 22nd to 31st, they are holding their Howl-o-ween event. The fun starts on 22nd October with Wolf Night in aid of the Anglian Wolf Society. Wolf Night on the Saturday, includes a twilight tour of the Park, talks and a very special Howl-o- ween treat for our two wolf ambassadors. There will be free wolf masks when you arrive, animal spooktacular shows, Wolves Woodland Walk, animal pumpkin feeds, bat encounters in Dracula’s Bat Cave, meet and greet the creepy crawlies, a Howl-o- ween hunt around the park, stalls, gifts and competitions throughout the week.

On Saturday, the boys and I jumped in the car and headed to Broxbourne for our very first visit. As we had never been to Paradise Wildlife Park before, we decided we would simply take our time to explore and get to know the park and see what there was to offer. We visited the big cats first of all as the boys were really excited about seeing tigers. J spent the whole time doing his best tiger roar and had his face painted like a tiger, too. He looked ridiculously cute and drew lots of attention from other visitors!

We then popped over to see the zebras. There were two zebras who were cantering around holding a bucket; it was really funny, we couldn't quite tell if they were sharing or bickering over it. The boys were amazed as they have never seen zebras in real life. Well, Little N has but he was only six months old at the time so he won't remember it! The emus were really interesting to see and J loved them, a little too much as he wanted to pet them! He is so fearless and we have a long way to go with teaching him to be more cautious around animals.

The camels were next. My goodness you should have seen J's face when he spotted them. A real "woah!" expression took over his face! Little N shouted "that camel is a mummy, it's got boobies on its back." It is funny how children see the world! Of course, I explained that they were the camel's humps and what they were for, not that he believed me. He's still adamant that they are boobs.

The meerkat enclosure was where we spent the most time. The boys were completely enthralled by the meerkats, as were all the other children it seemed! Little N has a Baby Oleg toy, from the Compare the Market adverts, which he absolutely adores so he was thrilled to "meet" Baby Oleg's family! There were so many meerkats and they are so fast, the children were all being thoroughly entertained by them.

By this point we had been at the park for nearly two hours and the boys were starting to get tired. We had a flying visit (no pun intended) to the Birds of Paradise were there were macaws, toucans and owls among other birds, before making our way home. There was still so much left to discover for next time! On our next visit we hope to explore some of the adventure playgrounds and see some of the animal shows, and perhaps pop into the arts and crafts centre. Ooh and definitely go on a tractor ride!

Tickets are priced at £18 per adult and £15 per child - you can get savings by booking online and under twos go free! Find out more about Paradise Wildlife Park's Howl-o-ween event HERE!

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