Last week I slept in the zoo. And no, this was not one of those strange challenges where you sneak in and set up camp. It was totally legit and pretty cool.
ZSL London Zoo (as well as Whipsnade Zoo) have introduced lodges; Gir Lion Lodge, into their premises which allow animal enthusiasts to spend the night amongst the animals, (totally away from the animals, but the noises of the animals sure did wake me up at 6am).
The lodges are open Wednesday to Monday February to December. They are also child friendly and can accommodate up to two adults and two children.
With this, you are granted two day access to the Zoo as well as private after hours tours. We were taken on a total of three tours throughout our time at the Zoo. The first tour was a champagne reception where we visited a selection of animals and helped them with their enrichment. The Zoos try to encourage the animals to live like in the wild, so they are constantly thinking of different ways to help the animals use their instincts to forage for their food in different ways.
After the first tour, we headed to dinner where we were served a two course meal. Once dinner was over, we went back out in the dark to see some of the animals that were more active at night. This time with a flash light in hand as it was nighttime by now.
After dinner we headed to our own private lodge which had an ensuite as well as some amenities to make your stay that little more comfortable.
The next morning, breakfast was served at 8am where we were served a full english. Once breakfast was over we headed on to our last tour which was really fascinating. We got the chance to head behind the scenes and head into the animals kitchen. Here we could see how the Zoo stores and prepares food for the vast amount of animals. They rely on a lot of volunteers, so if this is something you' love to help out with please do make sure to check out how.
The overall experience of staying at the Zoo was a fun insightful evening. As someone who is a little scared of all animals it was great for me as we didn't get to feed the animals with our hands, but I know a few people would be disappointed that there was no hands on action.
If you'd like to experience this please visit the ZSL website for more information.
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