Twycross Zoo :: Lanterns of the Wild

Hi there everyone 😀

Back in February we had a very wet, but brilliant, evening out with mum and my brother and his family at the Lanterns of the Wild light trail at Twycross Zoo …

Martin and I have been to see this kind of lantern trail before … at Longleat … a number of years ago and we were quite excited to have something similar on our doorstep.

The weather forecast was a shocker … heavy rain all evening … and we just decided we would just all have to get wet and make the best of it.

We were all dressed for the weather so were soon on our way …

Obviously before we began there had to be something for Bobby to wave about crazily. He thought this was very cool as, if he waved it fast enough, when photographed it looked like a WiFi symbol 😂😂😂

It was a really well laid out route … with lots of big reveals along the way and something fabulous around every corner. We started off with, what was claimed to be, the World’s first Gruffalo lanterns … reached via a footpath lined with butterflies and tropical flowers … we could see there was going to be lots of photo taking going on and we were really glad that the weather seemed to have kept the crowds away …

We met up with The Gruffalo and his friends …

… before a toasted marshmallow stop for David and Bobby …

We carried on from The Gruffalo trail, along a rose filled walkway … the flowers were all absolutely stunning …

We arrived in North America where the salmon were leaping …

… and the moose were roaming against the backdrop of Mount Rushmore …

We then found ourselves, with the penguins, in the Antarctic …

Judging from the number of cacti I believe our next stop was the desert … though it was maybe not quite as dry as it should have been …

I think you can tell from this photo that, although pretty wet, we were all in very good spirits. The lanterns were fabulous and they were laid out in such a way that we couldn’t really tell what was coming next. There were certainly plenty of oohing and hanging going on. 

We moved on from the desert to the Asian Jungle … where the weather was far more authentic …

I think the next area was my absolute favourite … the Great Barrier Reef. The colours were just so vibrant and there was so much going on.  It was absolutely stunning …

The lantern trail finished on the African Plains …

It had been absolutely brilliant and, whilst not quite as big an area as the display we’d seen at Longleat, it was definitely every bit as spectacular. We were all wet, we’d waded through mud and puddles, but we’d all had a fabulous time. The rain hadn’t spoilt our enjoyment one bit. 

There was just one more stop before a well deserved hot chocolate …

**********************************************