A Fantastic day out.

 Anyone in the UK who ever stops at motorway services will know about the little shelves that hold leaflets and fliers for various attractions. Some will be local to where you are , and others will not .
 I occasionally stop and have a quick flick through , picking up any that might be of interest , even if it's just to look at the flier, lol .

 At some point over the last couple of years , my collection acquired a flier for The Chestnut Centre . As hubby was off last week , and we wanted to do things , I looked through all my leaflets , went online to check prices etc , and we decided to go to The Chestnut Centre last Wednesday.

 OMG , was it a good decision or what !

 It was fairly easy to find , though the car park is a bit small . Luckily ,we got there not long after they opened so managed to park under a tree in the shade.
 The things that attracted me to this venue , were of course the animals , otters , owls ,deer and more , the location , and the fact that there is no playground/rides or other such stuff that will distract the kids from enjoying the real reason for being there .
 We have been to countless places, Monkey World, Twycross Zoo and more and every time , the kids have wanted to go on rides and stuff rather than looking at the animals . Not so this time .

 The "park" is set at the bottom of a steep valley , so it is not for anyone with mobility problems . That said , you can get around parts of it and when we were entering there was a lady on a scooter and she wasn't charged entrance fee as she wouldn't be able to get around most of it.
  It is very steep , lots of stairs up and down , lots of little bridges and lots of exposed tree roots , but if you are up for it , it is well worth it.

 On the way down to the enclosure ,we spotted a few deer in the distance , but don't worry , we got to see them a lot closer later on .

 Lovely otters .

 I think this was either Pickwick or Blue . Most of the otters have names . These were the first ones we saw actually swimming .

 Fantastic .

 These are the Giant Otters . While they are fascinating to watch, personally I prefer the smaller Asian ones . They are cuter .

 Food Time .

 Ahhhh .

 It was hard to get good photos of the owls.They were too far away and my camera kept focusing on the bars .

  The burrowing owls were rather cute too .

One of two Scottish Wildcats

 The new Pine Marten (Neil) .

  Mr Fox peeking out of his tree house .

 And the deer .

 Hiding in the brush .

  Feeding time .

  The velvet was just starting to rub off his antlers , and the poor boy was being plagued by flies. But he is so gorgeous .

  This is Spirit

  And Apricot.

 These two were very happy to be hand fed redskin peanuts by anyone who was around when the keepers were feeding . The were also happy to be stroked and petted . Absolutely amazing for kids and adults alike.

 Some of the babies

  The mama was running up the hill calling to her baby who came running down for some milk. So sweet .

 Some tree art .

 And a couple of unexpected pictures.
 This little guy was quite happy to pose for a few shots .

 And this one popped over to see if there were any leftovers from feeding time .

  Favourite shot of the day .

 The are just a few of the over 300 photos taken in one day . My hubby thanks the inventor of digital cameras ,lol .

 All in all ,an amazing day out , and well worth the £23.50 to get in . We are planning to go back.

 The centre and shop are well run , and the staff are very people friendly . Late in the afternoon ,we bumped into the keepers doing the food round, and basically followed them round for about an hour. They were very patient , talking to the kids ,answering questions and explaining things and one of them went into an owl enclosure and brought out a pellet to show us after the kids were asking about it. Fantastic!

 Can you tell we enjoyed it ?

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath