Last year we had loads of Tesco supermarket vouchers and we weren’t sure what to do with them. I love animals and hadn’t been to Howlet’s Zoo before so we ordered some tickets. We have had the tickets for month’s as we knew we didn’t want to go in the summer or when the kid’s are off school but last week we finally made a descion and planned to go. The night before Paulie made us a lovely cumin, carrot and butternut squash soup (recipe here). He put it in the flask in morning and warmed through some sausage rolls. We were so lucky with the animals as we saw all of the big cat’s including a fishing cat (which I never knew exsisted) and a clouded leapord which believe or not is the first big cat on their family tree! Of course you had tigers and leapards too. As it was so quiet, there were no shows or feeding times but we happened to be in the monkey area when the ranger fed them so they all came running outside and Paulie managed to get some pictures of them.

The monkey’s above looked like old people which was really funny. The other highlight was they had a baby rhino which I have never seen before and they stood up just as we arrived which was amazing. I really enjoyed Howlets and me and paulie were so impressed as all the enclosures were so big and well mainted … Lucky animals!

To end our day out we decided to go to Deal and walk along the seafront. My gosh it was freezing and really tacky! We stopped in a pub for a beer and some chips, but the barmaid wasn’t inviting and stated the kitchen was closed. To add to the nightmare there were red lights all across the ceiling which didnt help the ambience, so we settled for a pint of ale and packet of crisps, don’t think Deal is one for us!